After reading about half of Waxman-Markey I realized* the bill was basically a convoluted gas tax, hiring mercenary tax collectors (carbon traders, offsetters etc.) at 120% of the cost vs. a straight up carbon tax....
...*From the Aug. 4 post "U.S. refiners see shakeout under climate change bill (TSO;VLO)":...It would appear that the House climate bill was a disguised gasoline tax with the political advantages of being opaque and outsourcing the actual tax collection to mercenaries (i.e. carbon traders).
Oops, don't want to forget the grab-bag of goodies to every special interest that could get their snout in the trough, which of course will be recycled into campaign contributions.
A perfect bill!
In September 2009 we posted "Heresy!!! Caterpillar Breaks With USCAP Dogma (CAT; FDX)":
Caterpillar is a member of USCAP whose climate policy manifesto (cap-and-trade with free allocations, more giveaways with "credit for early action", etc.) was embraced by the ineffectual monstrosity that is Waxman-Markey.From the Houston Chronicle's NewsWatch Energy blog:
Holy schism, Batman!...
ConocoPhillips and BP today announced they were pulling out of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a powerful alliance of businesses and environmental groups that has backed anti-global warming legislation on Capitol Hill.
USCAP was instrumental in shaping the climate change bill that passed the House last year and lobbying for a government giveaway of valuable carbon dioxide emissions allowances designed to soften the business costs of complying with a new nationwide cap on greenhouse gases.
But oil industry leaders have complained that the House-passed bill would only donate 2 percent of those emissions allowances to refiners -- an amount that would only cover about half of the annual emissions from the refining process, much less the emissions produced when consumers burn their fuels in cars, trucks and planes. All told, refiners would ultimately be responsible for 44 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
That was a major factor in ConocoPhillips' pullout, according to Jim Mulva, CEO of the Houston-based company.
"House climate legislation and Senate proposals to date have disadvantaged the transportation sector and its consumers, left domestic refineries unfairly penalized versus international competition, and ignored the critical role that natural gas can play in reducing (greenhouse gas) emissions," Mulva said....MORE
From the New York Times:
Conoco, BP, Caterpillar Leave Climate Coalition
ConocoPhillips, Caterpillar Inc. and BP America have left the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of more than two-dozen companies and environmental groups lobbying Congress to pass greenhouse gas emissions cap-and-trade legislation....MUCH MORE
