Monday, March 1, 2010

Sorry Carbon Traders, Your Time has Come and Gone

See also: "Sorry Carbon Traders, Your Time has Come and Gone II: "Carbon Market Under Existing U.S. Law Not Likely, Xcel Says" XEL"

When the Centrr for American Progress is talking like this you know cap-and-trade ain't gonna happen.
From Climatewire's post "Senate Climate Talks Intensify With New Carbon Pricing Draft Expected This Week ":
...The Kerry-Graham-Lieberman draft to be circulated this week starts with an overall goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse gases by 2020 in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels.
To get there, they will propose a significant redesign of the carbon pricing mechanisms of the House-passed climate bill, H.R. 2454 (pdf), and a Senate counterpart authored by Kerry and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), S. 1733 (pdf). Rather than include all major industrial sources of greenhouse gases in one broad economywide cap-and-trade system, the Senate trio will propose different types of limits for different sectors of the economy, beginning with electric utilities and then turning later to manufacturers such as chemical plants and pulp and paper mills....

...'Different from anything that's been put on the table'

As they make their case for the legislation, the three senators plan to tout their effort to incorporate energy and climate proposals into one overall package. And they will highlight the shift on carbon pricing away from cap and trade.

"It will be different from anything that's been put on the table in the House or Senate to date," Kerry said last week. "It'll be comprehensive. And I hope it'll change the debate."...

..."Cap and trade as we know it is dead, but the issue of cleaning up the air and energy independence should not die -- and you will never have energy independence without pricing carbon," Graham said in yesterday's New York Times....

...Dan Weiss, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, said "the most important element" of the upcoming Senate plan involved a carbon price capable of curbing emissions by at least 17 percent by 2020.

"The method in the bill to achieve that call -- whether it's cap and trade, cap and dividend, carbon tax, or a hybrid system -- is much less important as long as it can meet the goal while attracting 60 senators' votes," Weiss said....MORE