Kimberley Strassel Says the Climate Change Lobby Is Beginning to Realize That Cap and Trade Is a Tax - WSJ.com

Kimberley Strassel Says the Climate Change Lobby Is Beginning to Realize That Cap and Trade Is a Tax - WSJ.com

With so many massive programs unveiled by Team Obama since his inauguration, cap and trade (C&T) for carbon emissions has not received a great deal of public input or media coverage. This is a complicated system for TV's talking heads to explain and really isn't of much interest to most people when they are struggling in this recession...until they learn what it will do to their budget

Now that a few more details have become available, it's clear this is a plan to raise revenue, raise prices for traditional sources of energy, particularly electricity, so as to make alternatives and renewables more price competitive with coal and petroleum.

The idea of cap and trade and the carbon credits market that would be created is fraught with risk. If climate-savers want to manage carbon dioxide emissions, they should propose taxing consumers directly and transparently, consumers who also vote, rather than disguise the increased costs for electricity in a C&T scheme.

"...People are learning," says William Kovacs, vice president of environment, technology and regulatory affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (which has been cautious about embracing a climate plan). "The Obama budget did more to help us consolidate and coalesce the business community than anything we could have done. It's opened eyes to the fact that this is about a social welfare transfer system, not about climate."

Truth is, any cap-and-trade system is a tax, even if Mr. Obama's plan has only started to force business proponents to admit it. The government sets a cap on how much greenhouse gas can be emitted annually. Companies buy and sell permits that allow them to emit. Customers bear the price of those permits..."