Comments on: Cost-Free Cap and Trade

By: Tamara

Tamara — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:03:12 +0000

“Over time, fewer people will choose to live farther from their work if they don’t want to pay for it”

Provided they can sell their houses, and don’t mind living in over-priced (due to increased demand for urban housing) tenements.

By: Jon Frum

Jon Frum — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:04:31 +0000

“I can’t speak for Pelosi specifically, but the cost-free concept often refers to the aggregate. Society pays more for the energy per unit, and the money is returned in tax rebates or lower rates for other kinds of taxes.”

Stop, your killing me!

By: jae

jae — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:50:15 +0000

dean: Which planet do you come from?

By: dean

dean — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:42:32 +0000

Over time, fewer people will choose to live farther from their work if they don’t want to pay for it, but I’m not aware that is necessarily regressive since wealthy people sometimes live far away as well.

Large homes take more energy to heat, but the issue is not the total they pay, but how much that changes. A large house is just as capable of being efficient as a small house. If you can make that large house very efficient, you can save money.

There certainly are tradeoffs and no plan is perfect, but for those of us who believe that something serious must be done, stopping the free externality of greenouse gas emissions is essential. I personally favor carbon taxes over cap-and-trade. C-n-t is far too complex – too many ways to get it wrong.

By: stan

stan — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:09:53 +0000

And we all know that no one in Congress would ever use the cap and trade regs to line their own pockets by granting exemptions or loosening restrictions. Noooo way.

A massive bureaucratic nightmare, corrupt from the start and increasingly corrupt as the years go by. An incredible dead weight loss to the economy. And that assumes that the spenders in Congress don’t grab the money for their earmarks and actually return it to the consumer (yeah, right).

Anyone who has faith that govt would do what it says, without massive corruption and bureaucratic bungling, is inhaling way too much fairy dust.

By: jae

jae — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:48:58 +0000

Dean: I still don’t see how it can possibly work in a fair manner, no matter how they try to structure the tax system. It will be a regressive tax, period. For example, those who commute a long way to work will pay MUCH more “energy tax” than those who live close to their work. People with bigger families generally have bigger houses; so they pay far more for energy to heat their homes. Those on a fixed income will not be able to take advantage of tax breaks for improving energy efficiency, so they get clobbered. Voting for Cap and Trade is political suicide, IMHO.

By: dean

dean — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:30:04 +0000

I can’t speak for Pelosi specifically, but the cost-free concept often refers to the aggregate. Society pays more for the energy per unit, and the money is returned in tax rebates or lower rates for other kinds of taxes.

Some who are willing and able to lower their energy use enough will actually make a profit, while those who will not or cannot reduce energy use will pay more. Maybe we need a special energy tax deduction for professions that prevent such economizing, like plumbers.

By: jae

jae — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:39:04 +0000

We need mandatory drug testing for Congressmen (and Congresswomen).

By: Sean_Wise

Sean_Wise — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:33:51 +0000

What floors me about this push from congress for cap and trade are two things. They must be aware that cap and trade in Europe has not been successful so why would anyone want to follow suit? The second is we have an economy reeling from the the excesses of broker manipulations and Congress wants Wall Street to set a price and make a buck on the gasses we exhale? What or who in heaven’s name is really pushing for this insanity?

By: jae

jae — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:30:09 +0000

““There should be no cost to the consumer,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said Wednesday. She vowed the legislation would “make good on that” pledge.”

Dammit, Roger, I choked on my coffee, again. You owe me a keyboard.