Jul. 1--If there is any good to come out of the House passage of the massive cap-andtrade bill Friday, perhaps it's the realization from more and more people that many of the policies being pushed by the Obama administration start out sounding OK, only to end up filled with disastrous consequences.

The House of Representatives voted 219-212 in favor of the legislation, which purportedly was designed to address global warming -- though they call it "climate change" now because the globe hasn't warmed in the past few years. Not only will this bill do little or nothing to curb global warming -- it's all pain and no gain -- it ended up a Christmas tree for politically connected industries and lobbyists.

That was a result of proponents buying votes from moderate Democrats with special-interest favors and sweetheart deals. A week before it passed, HR 2454 was 946 pages long. It ended up being more than 1,200 pages as various constituencies made backroom deals with House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and his cohorts. Lawmakers were inserting amendments into the bill 20 hours before the lower chamber passed it.

That blatant vote-buying and sweetheart deal-making is why environmental groups like Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, and the open-government organization the Sunlight Foundation, came out against the bill.

What is so wrong with this bill? Almost too many things to count.

Middle class families are struggling during this recession, and the last thing they need is even higher costs of living and weaker job security. However, that is what will happen to Ohioans, who will see electric rates go up anywhere from $26 to $65 a month. It will hit businesses even harder.

Cap-and-trade seeks to abandon natural resources such as coal, which keeps the lights on for most people. Coal accounts for 50 percent of the electricity in the United States and 90 percent in Ohio, where $900 million has been invested in pollution control at coal-fired plants. This makes the Ohio plants among the cleanest in the world.

Moreover, don't buy the argument that alternative energy is the answer. It's not that simple.

To replace coal generation, more than 300 million homes would need solar rooftops. If you're thinking wind turbines, it would require 860,000 large utilityscale turbines to equal coal generation.

The kicker, of course, is that assuming carbon dioxide emissions caused by human beings resulted in global warming -- still more guesswork than fact -- the highly respected Institute for Energy Research has estimated that the controls in this bill would reduce the global temperature by 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Not very impressive.

House Minority Leader John Boehner was on target when he said, "Cap-andtrade is code for increasing taxes, killing American jobs, and raising energy costs for consumers."

The energy plan is a giant economic dagger aimed at the nation's heartland. We can only hope the Senate kills it or makes significant changes before it lands on the desk of President Barack Obama.

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