Green Scheme Is a lobbysts' dream

A cap-and-trade scheme is a lobbyist’s dream. For those of you unacquainted with how these boondoggles work, it goes something like this: (1) regulators assign an emissions quota to tens of thousands of individual industrial suppliers and users of energy (because emissions are synonymous with conventional energy use, an emissions “cap” is the same as energy rationing); (2) these businesses then purchase the right to emit their allotment in the form of permits disbursed by a government-run auction; (3) these businesses are allowed to trade permits among themselves (ie, a company that exceeds its emissions quota can buy permits from a company that emitted less than its quota); and (4) the government spends revenue raised in the auction of emissions…