FT.com / Comment / Editorial - Cap and trade or coach and horses

...Predictably, in the disbursement of this enormous windfall gain, the House proposes to reward favourites, such as regulated utilities, and punish villains, notably the oil companies. Some emitters will receive more permits in relation to their needs than others. This would create a perpetual struggle for political advantage. If you wanted to promote corruption, this would be a good way.

Still not content, the House wants to set conditions on its gifts of permits – including commitments to shield consumers from higher energy costs. Yet the whole point of this exercise is to make high-carbon energy dearer. On the drawing board is a vast and unfathomably complex new system, which fosters corruption, raises little revenue and tries to suppress the incentives that are its entire purpose. Otherwise, it all looks quite promising.

Al's Journal [O' Fraud]: An Important Week

This is a pivotal week in our fight against the climate crisis. The Energy and Commerce Committee will be voting on the Waxman-Markey bill, which is one of the most important pieces of legislation ever to be introduced in Congress. As I stated during my testimony several weeks ago, this legislation has the moral significance equivalent to that of the civil rights legislation of the 1960’s and the Marshall Plan of the late 1940’s.

Women, your [climate huckster] needs you | smh.com.au

WOMEN hold the answer to cutting Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new campaign which aims to echo the women's movement of the 1970s and harness female power to fight climate change.

The plan may provide an antidote to male apathy: polls show fewer men are excited by the issue.