carbon cap and trade

Watch out for simplistic reporting on a new study on the impact of climate change legislation on the Midwest.
So far, reports on the study are highlighting claims that cap-and-trade, an idea that would monetize the cost of emitting carbon, would cause huge increases in electricity rates. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel claimed rates in Wisconsin [...]

The prospects for congressional approval of climate change legislation this year have dimmed but not disappeared. Yesterday the Senate voted against using the filibuster-proof reconciliation process to consider climate change legislation by a 67-31 vote and the House-approved budget did not include cap-and-trade in its budget reconciliation provisions.

In what The Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim calls a “big boost for climate change,”  Sens. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) and John McCain (D-Ariz.) today endorsed the idea of  ”cap-and-trade” system to reduced carbon emissions. When President Obama offered his proposal for a cap and trade system last month, even Republicans who had supported the idea last [...]

John Harwood of The New York Times has sketched an emerging scenario in which the Obama administration seeks comprehensive health care and energy reform without significant Republican support. Democrats are increasingly talking about abandoning the pretense of bipartisanship and putting the historic legislation in a filibuster-proof budget resolution could be passed by simple Democratic majorities [...]

The first carbon cap-and-trade program has launched in the U.S. this week.
Ten northeastern states are capping their industrial CO2 emissions at 188 million tons and holding auctions for power plants to trade pollution allowances.