Interesting dissent on the Waxman-Markey climate change bill currently being stalled by farm-state Dems in Congress:

…President Barack Obama has publicly described the bill as his and the Democrats’ preferred alternative to regulation. Without the bill, he has threatened, the EPA will directly regulate greenhouse-gas emissions, a power it was given by the Supreme Court in 2007 and which it announced it would exercise in April 2009. Indeed, the bill specifically prohibits Obama’s EPA from regulating these emissions.

The bill’s carbon-cap-and-trade provisions are by all reports its heart and soul. They exemplify a Republican approach: Don’t tell polluters what to do, bribe them and hope they do what you want. Democrats have faked left and gone right.

[…]

Most environmental leaders and Democratic Party officials argue that we should support this bill no matter how imperfect because it represents an important, small step forward. Strip it of its cap-and-trade provisions and I would agree. Retain the cap-and-trade provisions and I see it as a giant step backward that may well hobble further progress in federal efforts to combat climate change for years to come.

For a qualified defense of the bill, see David Roberts at Grist. I don’t have the wonky chops to determine if the special interest giveaways overwhelm the positive aspects of the bill, though people I trust still seem to be behind it.