Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one. -- Charles MacKay
Here's what's happened so far in the two years the [European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme] ETS has been up and running.- There's been "megatonnes" of profits, all right, mainly pocketed by some of Europe's largest energy companies -- the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.
- The spot wholesale price of electricity in some jurisdictions, which will eventually be passed on to consumers, has jumped by up to 66%.
- The ETS has created an instant new industry of carbon trading consultants, brokers and speculators, many making big profits.
- By contrast, some hospitals and schools have been forced to spend millions buying emission credits, instead of hiring nurses and teachers.
- While ETS supporters argue overall greenhouse gas emissions will go down, all that's gone down so far are projections of future emissions. Real emissions are up.
It isn't only European power companies and brokers looking to profit: Note this:
The chief executives of 10 major corporations, on the eve of the State of the Union address, urged President Bush on Monday to support mandatory reductions in climate-changing pollution and establish reductions targets."We can and must take prompt action to establish a coordinated, economy-wide market-driven approach to climate protection," the executives from a broad range of industries said in a letter to the president.
In case you were thinking that this springs from tender solicitude for Mommy Nature, guess again. They're simply following the path of another noted player:
With a payoff worth tens of billions of dollars at stake, Enron Corporation laid out millions in campaign contributions in the 1990s apparently in part to persuade the Clinton Administration and the U.S. Senate to support the Kyoto global warming treaty.Enron hoped to cash in on the Kyoto treaty by masterminding a worldwide trading network in which major industries could buy and sell credits to emit carbon dioxide - the inert gas that some scientists and most environmentalists believe contributes to global warming.
Yes, that would be the Enron of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, those pillars of probity.
I've got no objection to companies making money. What I do object to is them raking in profit from gaming a phony market that won't do a damned thing to correct the problems it's purported to solve. It's often been said that there is only one taxpayer -- well, there is only one consumer, too, and it's from his hide that this money will be extracted.
I'll make a prediction. In 200 years, the Earth will still be here; the weather will be as varied and unpredictable as ever; our descendants will be as mystified by this hysteria as we are today, looking back at the Dutch Tulip Craze.