When the People Lead….

by Matt DeNoto

There is good news and there is bad news. The good news is that Congress seems well on its way to passing through a cap-and-trade scheme to begin the process of lowering our country’s carbon pollution.

The White House had been pressing for the cap-and-trade program to start with 100% of the pollution permits being auctioned off. This would give companies the financial incentive to begin thinking about ways to cut down on their carbon output now.

But the bill recently unveiled by the House of Representatives details a plan that would call for only 15-20% of the permits to be auctioned off. The large majority of the permits would be given away to the polluters.

That is the bad news. As if the mere numbers weren’t enough of a clue, it should also be taken as a bad sign that energy companies, such as Constellation Energy Group, Inc., are applauding the bill. If the people who should stand to lose the most money are praising the new system, it’s probably not going to be very effective.

I understand the arguments. If we force companies to pay for the right to pollute, those companies will simply pass those costs along to consumers. We, ultimately, will pay for the pollution.

And that’s the whole point. Just like businesses, we regular folk need incentives to clean up our act. Because it is our responsibility. Companies don’t pollute for the fun of it. They do it to create products and services that we, the public, pay them for.

Near the end of March, the Environmental Protection Agency finally announced that it had the authority to regulate Carbon Dioxide as a pollutant. Since then, not much has been done about it because lawmakers have stated that they would prefer to regulate CO2 through new legislation than through EPA regulation.

As I watch the legislative process at ‘work,’ I secretly hope that the Obama Administration is keeping the EPA under the radar to use as a secret weapon, in the event that Congress is unable to pass effective legislation.

In other words, if it turns out that ‘The American Clean Energy and Security Act’ is a lot of hot air that sets up a useless program with no chance of actually effecting real change, I hope the White House isn’t afraid to point out to the world that the legislative angle didn’t get the job done, but luckily the EPA still has the power to regulate the pollutants and it will enforce that power.

It’s depressing to have so little faith in our ‘representatives,’ knowing that nothing matters to them except the perception of their constituents and major contributors. Their habits seem so disconnected from the real world. When Clinton was in office and pushing for fiscal responsibility, Congress abided by the Pay-Go practice, not submitting for new spending without finding somewhere appropriate to cut in order to pay for the new program. When Bush stripped away any sense of idealism, Congress dove in head first, racking up a debt that now chokes us all and still somehow getting shockingly little done.

Now, with a new President actually trying to change things, the Congress seems incapable of making strong choices, bold decisions. In sports, it is sometimes said that the best offense is a good defense. In politics, it seems, there is only defense.