Cap & Trade

Seemingly lost among the saturation coverage of the Wall Street Bailout have been some fairly important development on the energy front. The Senate has extended solar tax credits and the offshore drilling ban is headed for extinction, and yesterday the Western Climate Initiative formally put forth their cap and trade plan.

Similar to the Wall Street Bailout, the WSI "plan" is really more of a concept and the devil truly is in the details. Each of the participating seven states and the Western Canadian provinces will have to make up their own rules when it comes to the new carbon trading system, which means the rollout promises to be anything but smooth.

Environmental groups are guardedly optimistic; business groups say the sky is falling and that the system will make energy less affordable (but they say that about everything...)

States unveil a landmark climate plan for the West [Arizona Republic]