Monday, May 18, 2009

Henry Waxman is a LOT more powerfull than I'd suspected

People, it appears that he can make laws in China!

I garner this from the latest column by the world renown environmental scientist Paul "the planet won't wait" Krugman. Writing in support of Waxman-Markey cap and trade PK says:

"One objection — the claim that carbon taxes are better than cap and trade — is, in my view, just wrong. In principle, emission taxes and tradable emission permits are equally effective at limiting pollution. In practice, cap and trade has some major advantages, especially for achieving effective international cooperation.

Not to put too fine a point on it, think about how hard it would be to verify whether China was really implementing a promise to tax carbon emissions, as opposed to letting factory owners with the right connections off the hook. By contrast, it would be fairly easy to determine whether China was holding its total emissions below agreed-upon levels."

So either US laws written by Waxman automatically apply to China as well, or the just the sheer majesty of the bill will induce the Chinese to rapidly follow suit?

Yikes!!

2 comments:

Tom said...

I told you Krugman was an idiot. Now will you believe me?

Anonymous said...

Tom - jealous that Krugman has a nobel prize and you......