For a week or more I have been seeing an ad on the tube urging me to urge my Congressional team to support and pass the Waxman-Markey Bill.  At first I was not sure what it was but I did a little research and found my answer.  It is the new climate change bill.

The new Climate Change Bill is working its way through the Congress at its usual slow pace, but is it the answer to the problem?

The bill would require polluters to obtain “allowances” — permits allowing them to emit a given amount of a greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide or methane.  This bill would put a price on them.

To satisfy Democrats from states with coal mines or heavy industry that would be hit hard, committee leaders dropped their target for emissions reductions by 2020, from 20 percent to 17 percent. And they agreed that, instead of all credits being sold to the highest bidder, 85 percent would be given away.

The Green Party has responded to the proposal:

Greens have criticized emissions trading (‘cap and trade’), calling it a concession to polluting industries that will impede efforts to curb global warming. In many instances, emissions trading encourages greenhouse gas emissions, since companies with low pollution will be able to sell their conservation credits to the highest bidders, giving major polluters a license to maintain or increase pollution levels. Party leaders called emissions trading schemes like the Waxman-Markey “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009” a capitulation to polluting industries.

“Democratic leaders in the US House are planning to give away 85% of the greenhouse gas emission credits. Giveaways bypass the trading and auction strategies that cap and trade advocates have promoted as a free market solution. Such allowances are a signal that Congress is more willing to satisfy industry demands and ‘grandfather’ polluters than to demand the necessary extensive reductions,” said Tony Gronowicz, political historian and 2005 New York City Green Party mayoral candidate.

The whole idea of the cap and trade was to make those pay for the emissions they produce that in turn are damaging the planet.  Looks like that will be just another pipedream of actually doing something constructive to protect the planet.