“This editorial is encouraging clear thinking and analysis from San Diego, California”

-George Allen

Slow the rush
‘Cap and trade’ scheme rife with problems
San Diego Union Times
Editorial
June 19, 2009

When it comes to the U.S. economy, history will not be kind to President George W. Bush. His administration helped inflate the housing bubble by pressuring lenders to offer risky mortgages, then did nothing as the financial industry packaged these bad loans and sold them as purportedly investment-grade securities. The eventual result was a catastrophe.

But if President Barack Obama gets his way on a sweeping federal mandate to ameliorate the effects of global warming, history is likely to be at least as harsh with him. At a time when the economy is in shambles, with 14.5 million people unemployed, the president is seeking quick approval of a bill that would take a wrecking ball to U.S. industry, especially agriculture.

The measure would require U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions be reduced by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and 83 percent by 2050. It would cap total emissions and auction off emission rights, which could be bought and sold, in theory creating free-market-type incentives to limit pollution.

But just such a “cap and trade” program has a lousy record in Europe. This has only added to long-standing fears about its being an ungainly, ineffective, overly bureaucratic approach that could be gamed by insiders.

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