Ben Buckman.net

All the compromises in ACES could very well make it counter-productive:

Most of the allowance value (74 percent) is dedicated to blunting the impact of the carbon price established by the program on industries and consumers (and securing the critical swing votes on the committee representing these entrenched energy and industry interests).

In contrast, just 12 percent of the allowance value is dedicated to clean energy investments, broadly defined.

If the Republicans had half a brain, this would be their argument: the Democrats are pork barreling and compromising their principles again, doling out cash and goodies just to get votes. To really spur innovation, cap&trade needs to have a clear set of incentives, without the murkiness of backroom dealing and lobbyist shenanigans. All the revenue from the program should go back into innovation. Every penny of subsidies that blunts the additional costs of dirty energy is a long-term dollar lost on the future economy.

A half-baked bill is better than a bad bill or no bill in this case. But in the end, we all lose from the lack of an intelligent, reality-based opposition.