Cap & Trade on Life Support, Alternative Energy Bill More Likely

The NY Times describes Cap and Trade as being “in limbo.” The EPA and Senator Barbara Boxer, whose Senate committee will produce the ultimate Senate Bill, are not giving up on the legislation. Meanwhile, Senator Inhofe says put a fork in it:

“The delay is emblematic of the division and disarray in the Democratic party over cap-and-trade and health care legislation, both of which are big government schemes for which the public has expressed overwhelming opposition.."

Complicating the effort is a looming Copenhagen summit intended to be a platform for a new, international global warming treaty; think of it as Kyoto II. Environmentalists feel the administration’s hand will be weakened if there’s not a Cap and Trade bill by that summit.

Then there are ongoing discussions with China which could result in a bilateral agreement (presumably a treaty) on emissions. Senator Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state, back from a recent visit to China, indicates that she feels a bilateral treaty was the most likely option.

To complicate things further, there’s the recent EPA decision to regulate CO2 as a pollutant:

Also coming soon: U.S. EPA rules to control greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles and power plants -- regulations that are more than a decade in the making and premised on the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA.

"You can take a big bite out of the U.S. global warming pollution under the existing law," Doniger said, who added that it would not be too difficult to quantify the emission reductions from combining the new federal rules.

GreenTechMedia is even more pessimistic than the NY Times:

The hopes of passing a massive climate and energy bill through Congress this year appear to be dimming, as the bill takes a back seat to health care and financial reform.

Or perhaps the "climate" and the "energy" portions of the bill will be separated, since boosting clean energy and energy efficiency is a far less controversial prospect than the carbon cap-and-trade regulations that are now part of the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

That's the word from Democrats in the Senate, including high-ranking Sen. Dick Durbin, Reuters reported Thursday. The Illinois Senator told Reuters that health care reform and financial regulation could supersede action on the climate and energy bill, which passed the House in June but faces an uphill battle in the Senate.

We’ve been saying for weeks that an Alternative Energy Bill is much more likely. The Billings (Montana) Gazette, one of the leading newspapers in the state for a couple of moderate Senate Dems, reccomends just such a bill.

Here’s their take:

To create a win-win for Montana, cap-and-trade portions of the bill should be replaced with incentives for entrepreneurial solutions. Specifically:

• Replace costly subsidies for politically favored technologies with preferential tax treatment for increased research and development spending on both proven and experimental energy sources. Entrepreneurs, not Washington politicians, are more likely to discover cost-effective solutions for cleaner energy.

• Improve patent protection for new energy technology discoveries to improve the cost/benefit of entrepreneurial risk-taking.

• Limit frivolous lawsuits that obstruct both proven and experimental domestic American energy development to lower energy costs.

We have a long tradition of sending representatives to Washington who stand up for hardworking Montanans. We're confident that Sens. Baucus and Tester will do the right thing for Montana's unique environment and economy.

Cross Posted @ Cyberhillbilly.com