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Cap and trade: a Minnesota double whammy
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(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Minnesota is about to get hit not once, but twice by Cap and Trade. As reported in the StarTribune, the states of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin and the Canadian province of Manitoba have joined together to create their own little cap and trade system.
It's called the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord and was initially signed in 2007. It's making news these days as the initial planning stages are completed and it's now up to the six states and one province to begin to implement the plan.
Both the Waxman-Markey bill just passed through chicanery by the House of Representatives and the Midwestern Accord attempt to deal with global warming concerns by levying taxes on carbon dioxide emissions. Interestingly, both have similar targets – 80% reduction by 2050. The two differ slightly on the goal for 2020: 17% for Waxman-Markey, 20% for the Midwestern Accord.
Assuming for the moment that carbon dioxide emissions represent a grave threat to the planet, neither of these proposals actually accomplishes much. According to the Heritage Foundation, Waxman-Markey will result in a 3% reduction in world wide carbon dioxide emissions in 2050 and will reduce global temperatures by 0.1 to 0.2 degrees Celsius (about 1/3 degree Fahrenheit). Be still my beating heart.
Why so little? Carbon dioxide is a world wide problem. Reducing emissions in the United States without corresponding reductions elsewhere has very little effect on a global problem. If Waxman-Markey is only good for a 3% reduction, the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord must generate much less than that due to its smaller number of participants.
Yet both programs will hit you and me in our pocketbooks. Minnesota residents will be hit twice for cap and trade, once from the federal level and once at the state level. Lucky us that we live in a state where our leaders have such foresight.
The economic impact on Washington County is hard to figure. The Heritage Foundation provides an admittedly high-end estimate organized by Congressional District. That doesn't help us out much as Washington County is part of three Congressional Districts 2nd John Kline (R), 4th Betty McCollum (D). and 6th Michele Bachmann (R). Even so, the numbers do not look good.
Congressional Democrats supply smaller numbers, of course, but no matter what this is going to hurt and being hit twice is going to hurt twice. And all of this for a 3% reduction in global carbon dioxide emissions and a 1/3 degree Fahrenheit reduction in a theoretical temperature increase.
Can't we get serious here? Especially when human induced global warming is not necessarily a given.
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