CO2 Cap and Trade effectively killed by Thune (R) amendment :: Political News and commentaries

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April 3, 2009

CO2 Cap and Trade effectively killed by Thune (R) amendment

In what amounts to a remarkable win for not only the GOP but for almost every American, there has been an important, albeit relatively unnoticed, senate amendment to the Democrats' cap-and-trade bill. The amendment (Thune Amdt. No. 731 ), eliminated the ability of the Democrats' bill to make carbon-emitting energy more expensive and dealt a serious blow to the ability of Congressional legislation on cap and trade to result in actual emissions reductions.

Roger Pielke, Jr explains at Prometheus:

An Amendment was introduced by Senator John Thune (R-SD) on the Budget Resolution and its text is as follows:
To amend the deficit-neutral reserve fund for climate change legislation to require that such legislation does not increase electricity or gasoline prices.
What is this? Climate change legislation cannot increase electricity or gasoline prices? The entire purpose of cap and trade is in fact to increase the costs of carbon-emitting sources of energy, which dominate US energy consumption. The Thune Amendment thus undercuts the entire purpose of cap and trade.

What was the vote on the Thune Amendment? 89-8 in favor of the Amendment, 48 Democrats and 41 Republicans. Only 8 members of the Senate were willing to go on record saying that they support the purpose of a cap and trade bill, to make carbon-emitting energy more expensive. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) voted for the Thune Amendment had this to say:
Any kind of cap-and-trade system that comes forward will not raise energy and gas prices.

AJStrata reassons:

Since Global Warming has stalled and reversed itself in the last decade, now is a good time to finish the science investigations (which is not settled by a long shot), especially investigating why the UN/IPCC models keep producing wrong answers, and make sure that capping CO2 actually will do anything more than hurt the planet's plant life. Right now the science shows it will have zero effect.

Thankfully, the Thune Amendment effectively kills the ability of cap-and-trade (in its original form) as a mechanism for reducing emissions by substantially increasing our energy costs, although we can surely count on the legislation going forward in some form. As is pointed out at Prometheus, cap-and-trade is essentially dead, but the charade will continue to go on. In other words, we have won a temporary reprieve from the insanity of legislators listening to the global warming loons, but the battle will continue to be hard fought as long as there is a Democrat majority in Congress.

Posted by Hyscience at April 3, 2009 7:36 AM

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