Posted on 03/31/2008 3:19:49 PM PDT by Shermy
BISMARCK — The North Dakota Public Service Commission got a walk-through Wednesday of the congressional bill that would create a “cap and trade” system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
Some don’t like what they’ve learned.
It’s the Lieberman-Warner bill, which is expected to be debated in the Senate in June.
It would set up a system in which coal-fired plants, farms, industrial processors, manufacturers, utility companies and others will be issued a set number of allowances which will then be decreased over the next few decades to match the decrease in their emissions, until 2031, when their total emissions will have to be zero. The allowances would be traded, borrowed and auctioned.
Commissioner Tony Clark said the government regulation system envisioned in the bill would be a gigantic bureaucracy.
“It’s as close as I’ve seen to a sort of Soviet style industrial plan,” he said. It has the possibility of raising electric customers’ bills by 50 percent to 200 percent, he said.
Sandi Tabor, general counsel to the Lignite Energy Council, who made the presentation Wednesday, agreed the program set up by the bill would have far-reaching tentacles affecting most areas of U.S. life.
Clark said the outlook about the bill among those attending a meeting recently at the New Mexico State University Center for Public Utilities was “gloomy.”
The system would include a greenhouse gas registry, different classes of allowances, distribute energy technology funds and a method of tracking whether the laws is causing a “significant harm to the economy,” all through complex formulas and systems.
Commissioner Susan Wefald said it was important to get an explanation of what’s in the bill because it’s the first bill regulating greenhouse gases that is being taken seriously.
Commissioner Kevin Cramer said that, even if the state did not have a coal industry to worry about, the bill would be troublesome.
Clark said the Lieberman-Warner bill makes a simple carbon tax look preferable.
“I am not advocating a carbon tax,” he said after the meeting, “just indicating that it is preferable to this cap and trade system.”
He said either one would have a negative effect on electric power customers, “but the tax just accomplishes it in a much more straightforward, less bureaucratic way.”
He said, “It is still a bit like choosing the prettiest horse in a glue factory, from a North Dakota perspective.”
Very good article here.
Won’t hear this kind of clarity in ABC interviews with Al Gore
“He said either one would have a negative effect on electric power customers, “but the tax just accomplishes it in a much more straightforward, less bureaucratic way.””
But “Wall Street” that is the financial houses, won’t get it’s trading commissions and won’t get to play with strange new instruments based on monetized nothingness.
Kinda like the 2008 presidential choices.
CRS Summary of the Lieberman-Warner billS.2191
Title: A bill to direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a program to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Sen Lieberman, Joseph I. [CT] (introduced 10/18/2007) Cosponsors (11)
America's Climate Security Act of 2007 - Requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish: (1) a greenhouse gas (GHG) registry; and (2) a GHG emission allowance transfer system for covered facilities, including specified facilities within the electric power and industrial sectors and facilities that produce or entities that import petroleum- or coal- based transportation fuel or chemicals. Sets forth emission allowances for 2012-2050, with a declining cap on GHGs.
Provides for selling, exchanging, transferring, submitting, retiring, or borrowing emission allowances. Establishes: (1) a domestic offset program to sequester GHGs in agriculture and forests; and (2) the Bonus Allowance Account.
Establishes the Carbon Market Efficiency Board, which shall observe and report on the national GHG emission market and provide cost relief measures if it determines that the market poses significant harm to the U.S. economy.
Provides for the distribution of emission allowances, including initially giving allowances to: (1) specified owners and operators of covered facilities; (2) states; (3) load-serving entities that deliver electricity to retail consumers; (4) the Secretary of Agriculture to reduce GHG emissions in the agriculture and forestry sectors; (5) international forest protection activities; and (6) the Emission Allowance Account for covered facilities in the electric power and industrial sectors.
Establishes in the Treasury and provides for allocations from: (1) the Energy Assistance Fund; (2) the Climate Change Worker Training Fund; (3) the Adaptation Fund; and (4) the Climate Change and National Security Fund.
Establishes the Climate Change Credit Corporation to auction emission allowances. Provides for the use of auction proceeds, including for a zero- or low-carbon energy technologies program, an advanced coal and sequestration technologies program, incentives for production of fuel from cellulosic biomass, and an advanced technology vehicles manufacturing incentive program.
Amends the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to set forth provisions concerning appliance energy efficiency requirements and state building energy efficiency code updates.
Requires the President to establish an interagency group to determine whether foreign countries have addressed GHGs.
Directs the Administrator to establish an international reserve allowance program. Requires the proceeds from sales of such allowances to be used to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on other countries' disadvantaged communities.
Amends the Safe Drinking Water Act to require the Administrator to permit commercial-scale underground injection of carbon dioxide for purposes of geological sequestration.
Requires the Secretary of Energy to study the feasibility of the construction of: (1) pipelines for the transportation of carbon dioxide for sequestration or enhanced oil recovery; and (2) geological carbon dioxide sequestration facilities.
Directs the Administrator to establish a task force to study the cost implications of potential federal assumption of liability with respect to closed geological storage sites.
Authorizes the President to waive this Act's requirements in a national security emergency.
Requires the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to direct securities issuers to inform investors of material risks related to climate change.
>>It would set up a system in which coal-fired plants, farms, industrial processors, manufacturers, utility companies and others will be issued a set number of allowances which will then be decreased over the next few decades to match the decrease in their emissions, until 2031, when their total emissions will have to be zero. The allowances would be traded, borrowed and auctioned. <<
I read that statement and one question is now BURNING in my mind: Who is John Galt?
The enthusiasm for carbon reductions will be reduced once folks find out that these reductions are not free.
Lugar Stock Farm, Inc. joins Chicago Climate Exchange® as an Offset Provider (Washington, DC– May 18, 2006) Lugar Stock Farms, Inc., a farm owned by Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana and his family, has joined Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX®) as a provider of tradable greenhouse gas emission Offsets.
The 604-acre family-owned farm in Marion County, Indiana produces corn and soybeans. A third of the farm is a classified hardwood tree farm, including significant acreage in black walnut trees that were planted in recent years. Growth of these trees produces oxygen and removes carbon dioxide from the air. The rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere is associated with the risk of global climate change, which could have profound effects on ecosystems, agriculture and human health.
Chicago Climate Exchange (“CCX”) brings together over 170 entities dedicated to building cost-effective, market-based systems for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Members of CCX include leading companies such as Ford, American Electric Power and IBM, cities such as Chicago and Portland, the State of New Mexico, and major universities, traders and environmental professionals. CCX is an integrated system of rules governing monitoring and independent audit, as well as electronic trading and registry platforms. CCX Members commit to reduce their greenhouse emissions 4% by the end of 2006, and 6% by 2010. Members can reduce emissions internally, and can partner with other members - through trading – to achieve reductions wherever most practical. Trading allows members to comply by financing emission cuts at facilities of other members, or through Offset projects, including reforestation projects. Reforestation and other agricultural projects - continuous conservation tillage, methane capture - mitigate global carbon emissions and yield local environmental benefits, such as cleaner water and wildlife habitat.
“I want to encourage farmers to explore this new opportunity to increase their farm income by using carbon-absorbing environmental practices. We have had testimony in the Senate Agricultural Committee about the potential for farmers to receive ‘green payments’ and now that opportunity can be realized. I would also encourage agricultural and environmental organizations to explore how they may help promote these opportunities among our industries, communities and landowners,” Lugar said.
“Lugar Stock Farms’ membership in CCX demonstrates Senator Lugar’s long-standing personal commitment to sustainable agriculture and forestry. He understands the role that market-based mechanisms can play in rewarding the environmental services provided by farmers, foresters and ranchers. We are honored and proud to be able to further build this environmental market with the help of Senator Lugar’s farm as a source of emission Offsets.” said Dr. Richard L. Sandor, Chairman and CEO of CCX.
Farmers who undertake reforestation, methane collection, continuous conservation tillage or grass plantings may be eligible to earn emission offsets and should contact Nathan Clark at (312) 554-0819.
About Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX): Chicago Climate Exchange is North America's only, and the world's first, legally binding multi-sectoral, rule-based and integrated greenhouse gas emission registry, reduction and trading system. CCX is the only available mechanism through which US based entities may engage in the integrated carbon market with a linked reduction and trading system and is a vital tool for understanding the price of carbon in all operations. CCX members range from large industrial concerns such as DuPont, International Paper, Baxter Healthcare and Temple-Inland, to utilities such as American Electric Power, Tampa Electric and Green Mountain Power, to universities such as Iowa and Minnesota, to non-governmental organizations such as World Resources Institute and Rocky Mountain Institute, to cities such as Portland, OR, Oakland, CA and Chicago, IL, to farmers in Iowa and Nebraska and the Iowa Farm Bureau, to the State of New Mexico, the first U.S. state to join CCX. Eligible emission Offset projects include agricultural soil carbon sequestration, reforestation, landfill and agricultural methane combustion, and switching to lower-emitting such as biomass-based fuels. See www.chicagoclimateexchange.com.
That’s very interesting about Lugar.
It was pulled from his web site but I found a copy of it months ago on the Chicago Climate Exchange web site.
These guys are about to legislate themselves a small fortune. I'd bet there are also subsidies in the farm bill to pay for the trees too.
Very apt description of this scam. Monetized nothingness.
This is a suicide pact with the enviro-wacko/ greens /pinkos /commies/ global warming / anti-capitalists.
That we have three candidates who ALL are adherents to the global warming cult and favor capping ‘carbon’ (I use quotes because I would bet my life that none of the three candidates could tell me what carbon actually IS in a single sentence) is terrifying for our population and especially those who don’t have the financial means to overcome the government harm each year.
This is the whole push for the Global Warming myth; large multi-national manufacturing companies can make a bundle by trading “credits” and letting consumers pay for it. It’s not to do with the Globe warming; it’s to do with making money by the polluters who will trade with 3rd world countries to keep polluting, under the guise of “saving the planet”, and the PR at home about how they are “cleaning the air” and “reducing greenhouse gases”. The utilities and the industrial lobbyists are being paid off with this joke.
“It would set up a system in which coal-fired plants, farms, industrial processors, manufacturers, utility companies and others will be issued a set number of allowances which will then be decreased over the next few decades to match the decrease in their emissions, until 2031, when their total emissions will have to be zero. The allowances would be traded, borrowed and auctioned. “
This is frigging insanity. Lets completely destroy American business while we are at it.
I suspect that the outcry about these measures to combat “global warming” will eventually dwarf the outcry about the stupid “illegal immigration” bill last year.
This is why I urge “getting ahead” of the legislation. Let the market guide us to where we need to be.
In a true market monetizing situation, the market will set the caps, and the values, not the freakin’ government, or the double freakin’ UN.
It’s (carbon tax and credit) gonna’ happen, how it happens is the only question.
Meet the board of Directors at Alliance for Climate Protection
Al Gore The mouth piece for CO2 Cap and trade
Chairman of the Board, Alliance for Climate Protection
Chairman, Generation Investment Management
We all know dear old Al
Theodore Roosevelt IV
Managing Director, Lehman Brothers
Chair of the Pew Center for Global Climate Change
We all know how Lehnman Brothers will profit. For every trade their are winners and losers and Lehman Brothers make money on both sides of the trade. The real loser is us, the consumer. Think ENRON or BEAR STEARNS.
Larry J. Schweiger
President & CEO, National Wildlife Federation
I bet they want to make money selling Carbon Credits
Carol M. Browner
Principal, The Albright Group, LLC
Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Bill Clinton
The legal mouth piece. Will help write rules on how the Cap and Trade will work and will make sure that his group will benefit the most.
Again, the consumer will take in the hinny.
Brent Scowcroft
President, The Scowcroft Group
National Security Advisor to President Gerald R. Ford and President George H.W. Bush
Just the man to spread the money around world. I bet he carries a gun.
Lee Thomas
Retired President and COO, Georgia-Pacific Corp.
Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Ronald Reagan
I wonder how much money the lumber industries will get to replant trees that’s already priced into our cost of lumber. Do you really think the poor person breaking his back replanting trees will see a dime of that money?
Orin S. Kramer
General Partner, Boston Provident, L.P.
Chairman, New Jersey State Investment Council
Orin S. Kramer is a general partner of Boston Provident, L.PLawyer Another rule writer Maybe setting set up hedge funds and will want the Feds to bail them out when the house of cards fall
Congressman Sherwood L. Boehlert
U.S. House of Representatives 1983-2006
Another Washington Money bag man
Kevin Wall
CEO, Control Room
Producer, Live Earth/SOS
The advertising mouth piece.
Your really up on things. Keep at it.
“Pew Center” - I always hear about their “opinions” on NPR - National Carbon Credit Radio.
The Lehman Bros angle explains it. Thanks.
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