On Monday February 1, 2010, I participated in a teleconference on the: THE CLEAR ACT BILL ... AKA ... CAP AND DIVIDENDS BILL ... AKA ... CAP AND REBATE ... AKA ... CANTWELL-COLLINS BILL.
The teleconference was moderated by John Passacantando, former Director, Greenpeace USA and current president, Our Next Economy LLC. I listened to brief presentations by Amit Ronen, Peter Barnes and Mike Tidwell.
My uneducated opinion is that this bill has fairness, transparency and flexibility. It appears to have a healthy combination Carbon Tax and Cap and Trade.
Bill McKibben's opinion is: “Cap and rebate has always been the cleanest, most sensible way to take on this monumental task of scrubbing the carbon from our economy. Instead of turning the operation, and the money, over to corporations, every American gets a check every month--it's as if we each owned a share of the sky. And a 39-page bill--that's a good sign right there!"
In point form here are some of the highlights of the CLEAR Act:
- - simplicity (39 pages unlike Cap and Trade which has 1000 pages. Thus the common person can understand it and consequently there should be less fear of the unknown)
- - should be so transparent that it will not be subceptible to Wall Street shaninigans
- - market-based, thus takes the government out (climate change is a non-partisan issue so I think this is good)
- - empowers the free market
- - has embedded predictability by setting minimum and maximum auction prices for carbon ($7.00/tonne min, $20.00/tonne max)
- - achieved by 100% auction of carbon
- - 3/4 auction revenue will go back to the American people ... the top 20% incomes will not receive a rebate but the average family of four will receive $1100/year in 2012
- - only legal citizens of the US with social security numbers will get the cheque (thus 12 million illegal citizens won't qualify)
- - the rebate cheques should have popular appeal ... and when people start getting their cheques just try to take them away
- - 1/4 auction revenue remains to go into reinvestment especially for clean energy, forestry and agriculture
- - Criticism -- not much in the Bill for helping developing nations to mitigate and adapt to climate change
- - Border Equalization Fee applied to imports that come from countries that don't have the same regulations
- - additional shares can be bought and those revenues will go into investment and drive the green economy
- - the "carbon auctions" will be an upstream cap ... a term meaning that only the producers of fossil fuels will be capped ... thus only about couple thousand producers to manage unlike with Cap and Trade where there will be tens of thousands of organizations to monitor for carbon emissions
- - should be revenue neutral
- - this bill aims to reduce GHG's by 20% below 2005 levels (the planet needs 30-40% reductions... thus not strong enough but better than Cap and Trade) ... 80% reduction by 2050
- - My favourite part was the built in flexibility with a clause about Fast Track Cap Adjustment ... if there are big changes in the economic or ecological situation the President can recommend changes, there will be 30 days for debate without filabustering (sorry I don't have quite all the details about who and where and the terms ... so please feel free to comment more on this part) ... I got so excited when heard this part that I started thinking too much instead of listening
As a Canadian I take comfort in the fact that our government keeps saying Canada will only do what the Americans will do in dealing with the climate crisis. Thus, I feel Canadians should be looking closely at this bill as well.
Resources:
Update Resources:
Video on Cap and Trade vs Cap and Dividends : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA-QufQzuWU by Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel. The Big Lie, The Big Rip-Off and the Right Solution. The acid rain "cap and trade" system required tweeking of systems whereas the carbon-cutting will require huge changes in the economic systems. So perhaps is not the best solution. As well, cap and trade did not work in Europe.
Peter Barnes, How owns the sky: our common assets and the future of Capitalism. (2001) Island Press, Washington DC
http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/ - a great resource website ... a template for educating Canadians about Cap and Dividends