Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Will Climate Bill Give Us a National Building Code?
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_06_07-2009_06_13.shtml#1244473348
The Washington Post [1]reports that the Waxman-Markey "cap-and-trade"
bill is chock full of traditional command-and-control regulation,
including measures that will create a national housing code for energy
efficiency.
the bill also contains regulations on everything from light bulb
standards to the specs on hot tubs, and it will reshape America's
economy in dozens of ways that many don't realize.
Here is just one: The bill would give the federal government power
over local building codes. It requires that by 2012 codes must
require that new buildings be 30 percent more efficient than they
would have been under current regulations. By 2016, that figure
rises to 50 percent, with increases scheduled for years after that.
With those targets in mind, the bill expects organizations that
develop model codes for states and localities to fill in the
details, creating a national code. If they don't, the bill commands
the Energy Department to draft a national code itself.
States, meanwhile, would have to adopt the national code or one
that achieves the same efficiency targets. Those that refuse will
see their codes overwritten automatically, and they will be docked
federal funds and carbon "allowances" -- valuable securities
created elsewhere in the bill that give the holder the right to
pollute and can be sold. The Energy Department also could enforce
its code itself. Among other things, the policy would demonstrate
the new leverage of allocation of allowances as a sort of carbon
currency -- leverage this bill would be giving to Congress to
direct state behavior.
As the Post notes, these sorts of provisions -- and there are many
others in the 900-page bill -- undermine the supposed point of
"cap-and-trade," which is achieve emission reductions in the most
cost-effective fashion through the use of market transactions. As the
Post asks, "if the point of cap-and-trade is to change market
incentives, why does Congress, and not the market, need to dictate
these changes?" Virginia Postrel comments
The editorial hints that these sorts of provisions have been
inserted because the bill's authors are counting on fellow members
of Congress not to read what they're voting on. They undoubtedly
remember how easy it was to get Congress to [2]ban incandescent
light bulbs by sneaking a provision into [3]the Bush-era energy
bill.
References
1.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/06/AR2009060601797.html
2.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&refer=home&sid=aPxA08AwZUfk
3.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2007-12-16-light-bulbs_N.htm
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