A long week in the cap-and-trade debate
Financial Times
Feb. 5, 2010
"But Jason Grumet, president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, said it’s all about the financial crisis:
"'Members of Congress are no longer inclined to vote for large market-based solutions that they do not really understand,' Grumet said. The bill introduced last year by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) was a direct reaction to fear of market manipulation and 'a government welfare state,' Grumet said. The Cantwell-Collins legislation aimed to cut fossil-fuel producers’ greenhouse gas emissions 20pc below 2005 levels by 2020, but barred financial firms from participating in any auctions of allowances. It also established a price collar to prevent price volatility. Climate legislation is not out of the question, Grumet said, but the approaches are going to be more “creative” and less like the full-economy cap-and-trade model of Waxman-Markey.'"
