SustainabiliTank: Barron’s Magazine Editorial

...That’s the story in some economics textbooks. In the real world, it is hard to find competent regulators, harder to understand the best scientific evidence and hardest of all to determine what emissions actually are noxious. The difference between theory and practice is that, in theory, there is no difference. But in practice, there is.

The House of Representatives passed a cap-and-trade bill last month to control carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. It’s considerably different from the textbook version of cap-and-trade. It is a remarkable case study in political science, focused on special-interest pleading and rent-seeking.

The bill, drafted under the supervision of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), is crammed with energy-wasting, money-wasting pet ideas. After promising to hand out 85% of the permits at no charge, the bill also provides loopholes and exemptions and escape clauses from the cap-and-trade system.

From coast to coast, the Waxman-Markey bill subsidizes, mandates and spends the taxpayers’ money on the ideas and industries dear to them and to a couple of hundred other congressmen. Markey and Waxman imagine cap-and-trade as a tax on business that won’t tax customers.

[How far we've come: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. writes on coal, doesn't even mention global warming?!] - Obama Should Stop Mountaintop Mining - washingtonpost.com

Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse?

2007: Doubting Global Warming Could Be Treason - Associated Content

At the Live Earth Concert at Giants Stadium, one of the non musical acts, Robert Kennedy Jr., shouted himself hoarse. He called those people who doubt either that global warming exists or that it is man-made or that it matters traitors and that they should be dealt with as such.

"Get rid of all these rotten politicians that we have in Washington, who are nothing more than corporate toadies for companies like Exxon and Southern Company. ," shouted Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "These villainous companies that consistently put their private financial interest ahead of
American interest and ahead of the interest of all of humanity. This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors." Kennedy went on to attack John Stossel, a journalist working for ABC news, as well as radio talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glen Beck for being "flat earthers", "corporate toadies", and "liars." Kennedy is the president of Waterkeeper Alliance and Robert F. Kennedy's son.