Gillibrand Sets Back Cap and Trade With WSJ Op-Ed
Ugh. We can all thank New York Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand today for single-handedly setting back the campaign for a cap-and-trade bill at least a few months.
Gillibrand’s op-ed in the The Wall Street Journal titled, “Cap and Trade Could Be a Boon to New York” plays right into the hands of bill opponents, with its trumpeting of Wall Street’s talent for financial innovation and listing of the country’s most unpopular companies.
First, Gillibrand calls for tight regulation of carbon as a commodity derivative. Fair enough.
But then, she writes that the “wide range of possible carbon reductions… will require innovative specialized contracts that can meet firms needs.” And she rejects mandated exchange trading because it would require standardization, which would ban customized derivatives.
Then there’s this: “entities like the New York Stock Exchange, J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and the new Green Exchange are developing carbon trading platforms or expanding their environmental trading desks.”
Good God senator, why don’t you just say that cap and trade is a ponzi scheme designed to enrich the “vampire squid” and be done with it.
Don’t get us wrong, we don’t buy into this ponzi scheme stuff, nor do we villify Wall Street. (If more bankers read GER, we’d have great demographics to show advertisers.)
But Gillibrand has terribly misread the country’s attitude toward banks, financial derivatives and Wall Street generally if she thinks that these arguments will muster support for cap and trade.
Sure, she’s writing in The Wall Street Jourrnal to a select audience, but everyone is going to see this. And what will they say about it?
Let’s look at what Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi said about cap and trade in August.
“It’s a Ponzi scheme because we’re just going to print certificates for CO2 and not take care of any CO2,” Enzi said. “It’s just another way to make money.”
He’s just a right-wing senator predisposed to hate cap and trade, right?
Let’s look at what lefty Gonzo journalist Matt Taibbi has to say about cap and trade in his notorious Rolling Stone screed on Goldman.
Goldman wants this bill. The plan is 1) to get in on the ground floor of paradigm shifting legislation 2) make sure that they’re the profit-making slice of that paradigm 3) make sure the slice is a big slice.
But really, you could just cite any paragrah at random from the story to show how distrustful people are of Goldman Sachs when it comes to cap and trade.
So you see senator, this op-ed will not help get a bill passed. Please stop helping.
Photo: Courtesy MMR Dad’s Photostream/Flickr
