Barack Obama's Carbon Emissions Plan Might Be Flawed

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I would refer everyone to an excellent monograph on climate physics and chemistry by Dr. James Peden at Middlebury College in VT. (Google it.) It's a cogent explanation as to why Mr. Gore is almost certainly full of you know what. There is at a minimum a more than a reasonable doubt about the claims of the global warming crowd. This nonsense really needs to be repudiated by the scientific community before serious harm is done to our economy by the nitwit lawyers that run our government.

Fred of PA 9:44PM November 13, 2008

It is increasingly apparent that the concept of anthropological global climate change has peaked and is now waning. The politicians were overselling the science and now reductions in solar output are taking away any tangible sensation of a problem with the voters.
Very few proposals on the ballot prevailed this cycle.
Obama will be swimming upstream on this one although he had a lot of support from those rent-seekers who would have made a windfall from such legislation. Obama's home town utility, Exelon, was especially well situated. Note that Bill Ayers' father used to head Exelon's predecessor, Commonwealth Edison. Even further back, the man who built the company from next to nothing was "Mr. Monopoly", the little guy on the get out of jail free card, Samuel Insull.
For another case, the holding company for Florida Power and Light (FPL) estimated that carbon cap and trade legislation would boost their revenue by up to $691,000,000 a year - for doing nothing!

Whitehall of CA 2:03PM November 11, 2008

Aside from the difficulties inherent in pricing carbon allowance volatility, there's the near certainty that new allowances, or unit adjustments equivalent to new allowances, will be introduced to the market regularly due to political pressures. This is what has devalued the EU ETR allowances so significantly.
In this environment, the logical response by credit owners will be to short them - i.e. sell them before the price declines in anticipation of being able to buy them back at a lower price. But this strategy carries obvious risks as well.
These are politically defined instruments, their levels and specification will be subject to the same sorts of political processes that we're seeing play-out in the recent credit market collapse and calls for bail-outs.

Jack 1:23AM November 11, 2008

Forget about 'em... I like carbon....Besides, I think settin' under a palm tree, on the beach, is better than settin' under a glacier on frozen tundra... I just sayin', could be another Ice Age we need to worry over... Oh wait, maybe that's why the enviro-wackos are changing the name of the game to, "Climate Change"...From "Global Warming"... Nothing like hedging your bets when you have no freakin' idea what you're talking about.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 7:34PM November 10, 2008

Michael,
too bad you didn't watch barone on fox when they were doing the election returns. his explaination of adjusting for exit poll variance when deciding to confirm a state for either candidate was as cogent a way to describe simple stats as I have heard.
his analysis, per usual, is based on his expert knowledge and experience. you are welcome to take the same data and put your analysis out for debate.
does anyone remember the 2002 election when the conservative age was upon us. that analysis was focused on demographics as well and given that the next presidential candidate will not be historic (unless it is a woman or hispanic), then we will back to the issues, conservatives still outnumbering the liberal (er, progressives) and party loyalty. the next time the republicans will not have someone cede the financial edge to his opponents. so it will be another barnburner. note: if you question this, how many votes did obama in 2008 get over bush 2004 in the midst of a financial collapse and a war half the population wishes to end. mccain 2008 lost by six to seven percent, the next time, should be much closer once obama is no long an enigma but rather someone measured by his actions or policies.
finally, got on too much, but having met Mr. Barone while I was attending a senior service school, I can attest to his deep knowledge and calm discerning manner even in the midst of a robust academic give and take.

Randy of Sterling of VA 6:34PM November 10, 2008

Like we're going to give credibility to anything this guy writes? He's been totally wrong throughout the campaign season and now tries to throw bricks from beneath the same rock? When will USNR give this guy the boot? Barone stinks on this issue - typically. He's lost whatever handed him this job.

Michael of MD 6:02PM November 10, 2008