Global warming may or may not be a threat to posterity, but here’s one prediction I feel safe in making: the Senate “cap-and-trade” emissions bill that was defeated today would have saddled future generations with enormous costs and increased the complexity of their lives. A new market would have been created overnight by government fiat, and it would have been administered by a government that doesn’t have the greatest track record for alacrity and wisdom.
Politicians invariably formulate laws with the best of intentions, but they can never envision all the unintended consequences (this is a criticism that is sadly true of both political parties). The more grandiose the scheme the more likely these consequences will be severe. Congress mandated MTBE as a gasoline additive to promote clean air but didn’t foresee that MTBE would poison our water. The government subsidizes the use of corn to create ethanol, which is driving up the cost of food for the world’s poor.
Kudos to those politicians who had the courage to say “stop” to the cap-and-trade Rube Goldberg scheme. Pulling on my sweater to ward off the chill of California nights in June, I hope that when they take up this bill next year we’ll be further along in proving that there’s a problem to solve in the first place.
© 2008 Stephen Yuen
No comments:
Post a Comment