Friday, April 3, 2009

Cap and Trade Postponement Will Shift Emphasis to Conservation

While all of the goals of President Obama's budget have been honored by the Democrats in the House and the Senate appears to be poised to offer similar support, it is clear that the important structural aspects of Cap and Trade policy will not be a part of the budget.

This means that the lions share of Green funding within the budget and in any subsequent stimulus will focus on conservation.

While some may be disappointed with this, in actuality, it is probably the best approach anyway. A lot of savings and carbon reduction can be achieved through conservation measures which, in point of fact, are usually the most cost effective ways to go green.

Sadly, the Republicans remain "the party of no" - irrelevant to efforts to stimulate the economy or reposition the country to compete in the global economy. For those who are hard core partisans, this will come as good news. The further isolation of the Republican party will extend their period wandering in the wilderness.

We don't subscribe to this notion. We believe that a strong two party system is the engine of innovation in government and a dramatically weakened Republican party is bad for the country in the long run. In the short run however, given the level of intransigence from the Republican Leadership, it is essential to the success of the Green agenda that the Republicans remain weak until a core of them realize that it is time to desert the party for the good of the country and Obama can begin to try once again to build a post partisan majority.

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