Carbon tax

I sat in on a blogger conference call with Congressman John Kline, MN-2, on the cap and trade bill being debated in the House. Some of the highlights-

-Cap and trade would also do nothing to expand domestic production, and offers incentives for every alternative energy source except nuclear

-The Republican versions of direct carbon tax measures would be significantly better than cap and trade, but still wouldn't encourage an increase in drilling or nuclear construction.

-Cap and trade would create a huge new federal agency to oversee and manage the cap and trade program, but the bill makes no provision for such an agency nor does it say how the agency will be funded

-Capping carbon emissions in the US will have a minuscule worldwide effect since China does not regulate carbon emissions and has no plans to do so

You can read the unaltered version of Rep Kline's op-ed that ran in the StarTribune two weeks ago here.