The following is an excerpt from Dr. Cohen’s opinion piece in the Daily Caller:
In a last-ditch effort to pass a global-warming bill before this year’s mid-term election drastically alters the political landscape in Congress, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) have introduced the “American Power Act.”
The 987-page document is really a draft containing many energy-rationing provisions that are expected to be revised many times behind closed doors in the weeks to come. It is the Senate version of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, H.R. 2415, which narrowly passed the House last summer. Because the public has come to equate cap-and-trade with “energy taxes,” the Senate bill’s supporters scrupulously avoid the term “cap-and-trade” or “taxes” and refer instead to “linked fees.”
Under a convoluted and still poorly understood system to regulate greenhouse gases, the bill provides for “allowances” to be either given away or auctioned off in different phases over the next several years. As Kerry and Lieberman readily admit, the bill was drafted by representatives of the very companies that would be engaged in trading the allowances. Those expected to benefit from trading scheme many of them helped draft include BP, General Electric, Edison Electric Institute, Goldman Sachs, Duke Energy, Exelon, and Shell – just to name a few. The cost of the system will be borne by consumers who will see their energy bills soar.
To read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/05/26/kerry-lieberman-to-cut-greenhouse-emissions/#ixzz0pELvFQCa