Cap 'n Trade? No, COMMAND and Trade....

Virginia Postrel picked up this little tidbit about the Waxman-Markey legislative outrage, from WaPo: (Linked inside the link)

"In fact, the bill also contains regulations on everything from light bulb standards to the specs on hot tubs, and it will reshape America's economy in dozens of ways that many don't realize.

Here is just one: The bill would give the federal government power over local building codes. It requires that by 2012 codes must require that new buildings be 30 percent more efficient than they would have been under current regulations. By 2016, that figure rises to 50 percent, with increases scheduled for years after that.

With those targets in mind, the bill expects organizations that develop model codes for states and localities to fill in the details, creating a national code. If they don't, the bill commands the Energy Department to draft a national code itself.

States, meanwhile, would have to adopt the national code or one that achieves the same efficiency targets. Those that refuse will see their codes overwritten automatically, and they will be docked federal funds and carbon 'allowances' -- valuable securities created elsewhere in the bill that give the holder the right to pollute and can be sold.

The Energy Department also could enforce its code itself. Among other things, the policy would demonstrate the new leverage of allocation of allowances as a sort of carbon currency -- leverage this bill would be giving to Congress to direct state behavior."

Postrel:

"The editorial hints that these sorts of provisions have been inserted because the bill's authors are counting on fellow members of Congress not to read what they're voting on. They undoubtedly remember how easy it was to get Congress to ban incandescent light bulbs by sneaking a provision into the Bush-era energy bill."

No, our concern for our nation's path under the Obamanation is sheer fantasy, right?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The election of Obama marks the onset of permanent stasis for our country.

As Postrel has so eloquently put it in"The Future and it's Enemies", stasis is the destroyer of dynamism, something our nation needs to achieve.

From the book blurb:

"Thus, the true enemies of humanity's future are those who insist on prescribing outcomes in advance, circumventing the process of competition and experiment in favor of their own preconceptions and prejudices"

Nowhere is this more readily apparent than the incredibly offensive Cap and Trade legislation that they are trying to ram down our throats, the same as all the other agenda items have already been or will be handled.

Let's ensure that Obama and his Dem/Lefty/"Progressive" toadies are held responsible for the damage they wreak.

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