Amusing, if harsh….
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Not harsh at all, just accurate. Well, probably. Any climate change bill that passes cannot in any way, shape, form, or fashion cause any harm to the U.S. economy. That means that there will have to some kind of “safety valve” that allows the federal government to shut off emission reductions if it appears that the economy is being adversely affected (possible recession, increased unemployment, inflation, etc.). That’s because a bad economy equals angry voters equals politicians kicked out of office.
And I’m betting that anything that does pass is probably going to be too aggressive, and the safety valve will get used pretty quickly. Just look at Canada and the Kyoto treaty. They are nowhere near the emission reductions that they were supposed to meet, and they have no hope of meeting them. Their safety valve was to just ignore Kyoto.
Of course, it’s always possible that some major technological breakthrough in clean energy could occur and we’ll get a win-win situation. I wouldn’t bet on it though.