Cap and Handout: How Corporate Welfare Cost Consumers More
Nicolas Loris /
In order to get the Waxman Markey cap and trade bill through the House Energy and Commerce Committee, handouts had to be given. The basic idea behind cap and trade is to put a price on allowances, or the right to emit carbon dioxide. President Obama’s budget proposal suggested a 100 percent auction of these allowances so companies would bid on the right to emit. Businesses, knowing very well their companies would be severely affected, sent their best lobbyists to Washington to protect them. And it worked.