Earth Equity News

Cantwell-Collins Bill Creating a Stir. By Christa Marshall, ClimateWire, February 15, 2010. "Companies and groups with deep coffers are lining up to change climate legislation emerging as an alternative proposal to cap and trade in Congress. The growth in lobbying from well-funded players signals that the bill from Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) has potential to gain momentum on Capitol Hill, analysts say... Since the two senators introduced their ['cap and dividend'] bill in December, more than 40 businesses and organizations announced plans to lobby on the measure via official disclosure forms filed with Congress... Supporters of the measure, which include many small environmental groups, are trying to counter the weight of opposition dollars through grassroots operations after meeting in Washington, D.C., in January to coordinate advocacy efforts. They argue the bill has mass appeal because it is a simpler approach than cap-and-trade that blunts the influence of Wall Street traders and fills consumer pocketbooks. 'The fact that I'm not a lobbyist and that many of the bill's supporters are not lobbyists contributes to the appeal of this bill,' said entrepreneur Peter Barnes, the creator of the cap-and-dividend concept who worked with Cantwell's office on the legislation.

"The Cantwell-Collins approach essentially takes the 'trade' part out of cap and trade and returns most of the revenue raised by a bill back to consumers in the form of a dividend. A typical family of four would get about $1,100 annually in payments, according to the senator's office... Cap and trade, by contrast, puts a cap on emitters throughout the economy rather than just the "upstream" producers of fossil fuels. It also would allow complex trading by requiring capped entities to buy and sell allowances to meet emission cuts... The cap-and-trade approach is seriously flawed because it relies on offsets, according to Barnes. Offsets allow companies to meet emission restrictions by paying for projects outside their own facilities, by say funding reforestation projects in Brazil. That will never force the worst emitters to clean up their act, Barnes said... Meanwhile, some environmentalists are referring to cap and dividend as 'cap and divide' because they don't believe it can garner a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate or control emissions sufficiently." Editor's Note: CCC believes that, for the reason stated by Barnes, the Cantwell-Collins cap and dividend is a significant improvement over the cap and trade bills. However, the price signal is not strong enough and the bureaucratic challenge of enforcing the cap and the fact the developing countries will not accept caps remain significant problems, avoided by the carbon tax/fee "Plan B" alternatives.