Digging in to Cap and Trade

Last week I wrote in the Cap & Trade bill that was pushed through congress and for those of you who read it you’ll know I came out significantly against. Anyway over this past weekend, I decided to throw myself into this whole debate (and probably did more studying than the people in Washington who never even read it!) and get all sides of the story. Needless to say it was pretty fascinating. Its funny how one bill could illicit so many opinions and so many of them starkly different… I also consulted with people that I really respect to get their take on it. Anyway here’s a quick synopsis of what I found as I went from every far right website to every far left one…
Overall the funniest part was that the people who were against this bill hated virtually everything about it. But the people who were FOR this bill ALSO hated a lot of it as they thought the bill did not go far enough… So in normal cases you would think if the hard right hates and the hate left hates it then it should be perfect right? But this is not the normal case…. And the reason why is that to get the votes they needed to pass, certain industries and regions were given perks- the biggest among it the farm lobby. So that had both sides up in arms. So you had a watered down bill (for the left) that was still awful (for the right). Same thing from the coal lobby as well… (Basically the not selling of carbon permits at auction is the thing that has both sides a mess since folks like the big utilities and big oil will somehow get these for free… and WE ALL will have to pay for them)
As for our industry, while it pushes more energy efficiency, which is a good thing, it calls for a creation of a national energy code that depending on how that is put together could make the NFRC folly look like a walk in the park. Especially if you have people like Marc LaFrance of the DOE involved… and to make things worse, some of these codes will basically limit the usage of glass (which if you are reading this blog, is your life) so that’s a very scary proposition.
This does not include what the bill will do to the domestic float guys as I covered last week. But there was an interesting angle where the bill called for a tariff on countries that don’t follow a climate plan (China). However the tariff will not be a deterrent because China will have a field day shipping glass and solar panels. Especially since that will be one of the few places to get the material…
All in all, the debate was wild- from the folks at Mother Nature Network to the people at the National Review it really was a battle of wills. I guess it depends on what you think is more important in life. But at the end of the day the thing I found the most interesting was that it really turned into a bill (those of us who read it) no one actually likes. Right or Left.
The Senate has their take now and of course the rancor has begun. While I believe with a 60 person majority (not to mention awful GOP Senators like Olympia Snowe) this thing will pass, but many people I discussed with think it will see dramatic changes before that may happen. So I guess we shall see…

Elsewhere…

-- In my research I came across this line in a Forbes Magazine article…
But the fundamental problem remains. California's economy--once wondrously diverse with aerospace, high-tech, agriculture and international trade--has run aground. Burdened by taxes and ever-growing regulation, (emphasis mine)the state is routinely rated by executives as having among the worst business climates in the nation. No surprise, then, that California's jobs engine has sputtered, and it may be heading toward 15% unemployment.
So there ya go… California is a mess because of regulation and who helped drive the nightmare regulation of the NFRC….hmmmmmm Get ready for Cali style regulation… what a pathetic waste of our resources for a totally unnecessary program….

-- Saw Kawneer is starting a company info blog. I must say it’s a tremendous idea-a great way to get info out and especially if the green legend Henry Taylor posts. But since it’s a blog I wonder if I can post there?????

-- Last… here’s what I don’t get…. The Alliance to Save Energy is this big powerful special interest group… they appear in front of code orgs and do their thing. Well recently the Alliance “founded” another group called the Building Energy Efficient Codes Network (BEECN)… So now they’ll come at it from another angle too. See this is where we miss it- these guys start all of these groups and we actually try and focus our energies on our various mainline groups… So I think AEC, GANA, NGA, IGMA and AAMA should start a couple of new groups too- so then this way that’s more people to send to the microphone at these hearings because they are all from different orgs…. And yes I know this is pretty common but the Aliance gets basically carte blanch so starting another group just will probably make life even more insufferable…

Off to the links…

-- Your wasted tax dollars at work… the government gives 465 MILLION to a car company to “re-tool” for electric and Hybrid cars… oh that company that got 465 MILLION is an ELECTRIC car company… so they need to “re-tool” why?

-- On the Cap and Trade… here’s an interesting and basically biased read from the right. However as a tax payer you should be furious…. No matter what your party..

-- And from the Link Chick… a woman who tries plastic surgery on her face… yikes.

Video of the Week:

My old roommate Brad comes through again… cool concept here… take a video and actually sing what is happening in the video… this is the class “Aha” video “Take on Me” from back in the 80’s… good stuff.