Waxman-Markey Just Doesn’t Add Up

Tim Carr / August 04, 2009

The Waxman-Markey climate change bill, a 1,427-page special-interest wish list, was put together in such a rush that the numbers don’t add up. Sum the percentage of emissions allowances to various special interests in the years 2016 and 2017 and (surprise, surprise) you get a value greater than one hundred. That’s right—the bill allocates nearly a billion dollars worth of allowances over and above the emissions “cap” set for those respective years.

Waxman-Markey doles out emissions allowances to special interests ranging from the natural gas industry to the auto industry. Even tropical rainforests made the list. Electric utilities were the big winners, receiving 43.75 percent of the allowances in 2012 and 2013. Petroleum refiners didn’t fare as well, receiving only 2.25 percent of the emissions allowances from 2014-2026. Evidently, not all special interests are created equal.

The discrepancy in allowance distributions makes a person wonder what the criteria were for allocating the free allowances. It’s a question that deserves an answer. (more…)