Fancy words; Total Bullpuckey.
The American public is hopelessly stupid if they fall for this one.
Like the Tobacco "tax" modest at first, unlimited presently, business, when cornered, has no compunction whatsoever with acting as tax collector; taxes without limit, if they can get their percentage.
Great! Stealth (useless) uncontrolled Kyoto!
[The item includes the folowing:]
These executives are thinking green all right — as in greenbacks. The real story behind their conversion is that the industry has figured out that a U.S.-based climate program holds profit opportunities, while any costs can be foisted on the backs of others -- consumers, taxpayers or competitors. This new cynical approach to regulation is worrying, if for no other reason than that the quickest way to bad policy is a co-opted business community.
What's changed the industry's tune at the broadest level may be the Bush Administration's Clear Skies program, a smart pollution-reduction proposal that may pass Congress next year. That program, about to be partially instituted via regulation, requires energy producers to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions 70%. But a natural consequence of reducing those true pollutants can be fewer greenhouse gas emissions. A "cap- and- trade" program -- creating a property right in CO2 reductions that can be traded for cash -- would thus allow companies to get paid for simply complying with other air-quality rules
.
For example, both Cinergy and AEP rely heavily on old coal plants that are big polluters and CO2 emitters. But many of those plants are nearing the end of their shelf lives, and will soon need replacing with cleaner alternatives. Since a climate program rewards companies that make the biggest CO2 reductions, Cinergy and AEP would stand to rake in cash from a cap-and-trade regime simply by enacting their business plans.