We need to address environmental concerns, of course, and that’s taking into consideration the fact that man’s Herculean efforts to reduce climate change, even if strictly enforced, will, at best, only make a tiny dent in air quality, while at the same time taking a huge chunk out of our nation’s economy. So is it worth it? I can sympathize with people who say no.

The fact is that any action we take can only help, but we must be careful to not completely dismantle our energy infrastructure, putting millions out of work, until we have a better infrastructure in place with the jobs to support it. In the meantime we should be setting standards and enforcing them, not letting people trade places to avoid penalties.

Job losses and economic impacts aside though, the trade portion of cap-and-trade is counterproductive, and it won’t work here any better than it’s worked in Europe, where air quality and emissions are worse than here in America.

It’s time we took the trade out of cap and trade. Period.

Yet a carbon tax is even more certain to fail. For environmentalists to put all (or even many) of their eggs in the carbon tax basket would be, I believe, nothing short of disastrous. Not because a tax on carbon is a bad idea, but because there is virtually no realistic chance of such a proposal making it through Congress. We can talk about escalating our movement, new ways of getting our message across, all of that – but a carbon tax is just not going to fly anytime soon.

Instead of these proposals that use the market, in one way or another, to cut emissions, what about simply pushing for a moratorium on the most destructive fossil fuel projects, along with massive clean energy and energy efficiency programs? I believe a climate package which includes a moratorium on new coal plants and tar sands development, a plan to phase out the current fleet of coal plants over a couple decades, ambitious new fuel economy standards, and huge investments in renewable energy, efficiency, and public transportation is our best hope at this point. The public understands that coal plants are bad and renewable energy is good much more readily than they understand how a carbon tax could be implemented without imposing a burden on middle-class folks (I think it could be done, but that’s not the point – most people still don’t see it that way). Plus, projects like these can be more easily linked to other national priorities, such as reducing oil dependence and creating jobs in the green energy sector.

If cap-and-trade is doomed to fail when it comes to actually reducing emissions, and a carbon tax is political suicide (which I believe it is), then our best hope may be a more old-fashioned “ban the bad stuff and encourage good behavior” approach. Thoughts?

Carbon trading has a disastrous track record and has served to further delay emissions reductions while giving the worst polluters windfall profits. The ACES bill gets worse and worse day by day as industry interests carve out more giveaways, loopholes, and caveats to drift the bill further and further away from science-based climate targets.

While I don’t agree with everything Hansen says – I do applaud him for sticking to the realities of science, and not accepting the compromises of politics. Political realities are only real if we allow them to be. And there is simply no argument – that we need a massive paradigm shift in our political thinking and structures if we are to create a sustainable and just world. That’s the reality.

http://climateprogress.org/2009/05/05/james-hansen-waxman-markey-carbon-tax-cap-and-trade/