Reason Foundation Founder Robert Poole Weighs in on Carbon Cap-and-Trade

Robert Poole, over at the Reason Foundation's Out of Control policy blog, takes a look at the leading Democratic congressional proposals to ration carbon dioxide and finds them lacking:

The idea of using market mechanisms such as cap-and-trade or a carbon tax is a good one, in principle. Instead of government attempting to micromanage all sources of carbon emissions—and inevitably attempting to pick winners and losers—the market approach is to put a price on carbon and allow competitive market forces to sort out the least-cost way to reduce the output of carbon throughout our economy.

Alas, that simple and efficient approach seems increasingly unlikely to be implemented. Congress and the Obama administration are moving steadily toward a version of cap-and-trade that combines the worst of micromanagement and pork-barrel politics. If implemented, it would make this country poorer while reshaping transportation in undesirable ways.

See whole Poole column here. Some additional thoughts at Reason on the flaws of proposed cap-and-trade legislation can be found here.