Friday, May 30, 2014

Who killed federal cap-and-trade legislation?

Yesterday on NPR, Robert Siegel interviewed C. Boyden Gray, former White House counsel to George H.W. Bush, about the history of cap-and-trade legislation to control greenhouse gas emissions. Gray completely bamboozled Siegel about the Republican position on climate change policy and the history of the legislation. 
SIEGEL: This was something that was developed for a Republican administration. You're a Republican. How did this go from being a Republican idea to being almost a litmus test - if you're for Cap and Trade, you're banned from certain, you know, talk radio shows?
GRAY: Well, I think what happened is the Obama administration, when it came, anticipated generating very, very large revenues by doing something that had not been done to auction off the original allowance levels. And it was not a, I think, smart thing to do politically. It was unnecessary from an environmental point of view. And the money was going to be spent, no one really knew how. And that's what caused the thing to collapse.
Yeah, sure, except that climate bills featuring cap-and-trade and co-sponsored by those well-known leftist radicals McCain and Lieberman were defeated in 2003, 2005, and 2007, by votes largely along party lines. My memory is not what it used to be, but I'm thinking somebody else was president back then. And the Republican position has only hardened since.

C'mon Siegel, do your homework!

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