Ben Buckman.net

I understand that a Cap & Trade system involves the government selling the rights to pollute, which can in turn be traded, but until a few moments ago I wasn't clear on the other side of the coin, allowing companies to produce credits, or carbon offsets. CNN Money just had a segment on Obama's Cap & Trade plan, and part of it, similar to the EU system, would give credits to companies who build clean-energy technology or otherwise "offset" greenhouse gases. That opens up tremendous possibilities. It allows individual consumers or families to participate in an offset market. It creates incentives for clean energy investment without any direct subsidies (saving taxpayers' money). It allows the government to phase itself out of the market completely, eventually creating a system in which every unit of dirty energy is offset by a private-sector unit of clean energy. That's how a market-based economy transitions into a clean-energy future. Why aren't conservatives cheering about this?