Cap and Trade: Officially Dead?

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Is cap-and-trade officially out of the picture in the Senate? That appears to be the message from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a key senator working to formulate a comprehensive energy and climate bill. “Cap-and-trade is dead,” Graham declared last week, according to a Washington Post piece on a meeting he held with environmentalists.

Graham, John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) may release a draft of their plan to price carbon dioxide pollution as early as this week, according to reports. The pricing part of the bill has remained one of the key sticking points, Kerry told reporters last week, and they are considering a variety of alternatives to a cap and trade mechanism—from cap-and-dividend to a carbon tax to a bill that targets specific industries instead of imposing an economy-wide cap.

It seems most likely that the senators will run with some combination of these different systems. From the Post:

Power plants would face an overall cap on emissions that would become more stringent over time; motor fuel may be subject to a carbon tax whose proceeds could help electrify the U.S. transportation sector; and industrial facilities would be exempted from a cap on emissions for several years before it is phased in. The legislation would also expand domestic oil and gas drilling offshore and would provide federal assistance for constructing nuclear power plants and carbon sequestration and storage projects at coal-fired utilities.

Cap and trade has long been regarded as the most politically feasible option to rein in greenhouse gas pollution. That Kerry, Graham and Lieberman are considering dropping the idea is evidence that it has now become politically unpalatable. The three senators are slated to have a number of meetings with colleagues this week as they hammer out the final details of their proposal. But, Kerry said last week, the system they’ll offer for regulating emissions “will be different than anything that has been put on the table in the House or Senate to date.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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