Could Be, Maybe, I Don’t Know
The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act is anything but fair, transparent, or even-handed. It does not simply require the permits, set the level, and establish the exchange mechanism, oh no; though that’s what they tell you about. Instead, the bill is loaded with exceptions, grants, set-asides, and other tweaks that make the system highly unfair and require a large bureaucracy to administer the permits. Industries and states who have lobbied most effectively are exempted, have their permits provided free, or get their permits a reduced price. Those who have not made the investment in wining and dining K Street are left out in the cold. They may be better businesses - in fact, they probably are, since they’re spending their resources on the actual business instead of on schmoozing in Washington - but they will fail in the marketplace because of the artificially higher costs laid on them by the government. Instead of emphasizing business acumen, this arrangement places a premium on political pull just like a banana republic. The laws even make it possible to make a fortune without doing anything useful at all, by cornering a permit set-aside and then selling permits off to someone who actually needs them. What’s capitalistic about that? Nothing.
What’s the bottom line? The Climate Security Act would create a fascist state by placing the government in complete control over who is allowed to do anything using their “private” property. Didn’t bid high enough for your carbon emissions permit? Then your factory must shut down. Didn’t lobby effectively? Then you’ll have to pay more than your competitor whose congressman, while enjoying his new yacht, took care to slide a little gift for his patron into a bill rider.
It’s easy to say that this is targeted only at big business. It’s even true - it was done that way on purpose. Do you think that Congress would dare take $6.7 Trillion by increasing taxes on, say, gasoline? They’d be howled out of office. Yet this will have exactly the same effect. Businesses don’t pay taxes; people do. Sure, the corporation writes the check, but they aren’t allowed to print money, they have to get the money from somewhere. They either pass the bill along to you the consumer or they go out of business.
