Cap-and-Trade Dead; Long Live Cap?

Just when there was hope that Congress might actually be listening to the majority of Americans who do not want higher energy costs through federal cap-and-trade legislation, here comes another attempt by some in Congress to take more money from consumers and kill more American jobs.

The fact that cap-and-trade is considered by most political observers to be dead has not dissuaded Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., from fighting to limit energy use in the United States. According to The New York Times, the three senators have been working for months behind closed doors on a plan that would cap carbon emissions from various sectors of the economy, starting with electrical utilities and expanding to manufacturing and transportation. Apparently cap-and-trade has morphed into just "cap." It seems that in Congress bad ideas do not go away, they are just recycled.

First we were told we need to accept higher energy costs to combat the threat of global warming. As the science behind global warming theory came under closer scrutiny due to the Climategate scandal, and the fact that it has not gotten any warmer for the last eight years, global warming became global "climate change." Global climate change has proven to be an equally hard sell. Now Americans are being told we must cut emissions in order to create new green jobs. Driving up energy costs through placing government imposed caps on energy production will instead kill more American jobs as studies in Spain and Germany have demonstrated.

The national energy debate seems eerily similar to the national health care debate. In the case of health care, government officials tell Americans they can provide an additional 30 million citizens with health care and at the same time cut costs to taxpayers. National polls show Americans do not buy the government claims. In the energy debate the same people are telling us just trust the government to create jobs by making energy more expensive. Americans will also reject this flawed logic, despite the desperate attempt of those in Congress who are convinced that higher energy prices are good for us whether we like it or not.

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