Al Gore's Cap-and-Trade Pumpkin Dies, No One Notices, Not Even Glen Beck

After a decade of hype over what amounted to nothing more than a fraudulent taxpayer ripoff, Cap-and-Trade is about to turn into a pumpkin. Glen Beck did not even notice.

This begs the rhetorical question If Al Gore�s Chicago Climate Exchange Suffers Total Failure, Does the MSM Make a Sound?

Global warming-inspired cap and trade has been one of the most stridently debated public policy controversies of the past 15 years. But it is dying a quiet death. In a little reported move, the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) announced on Oct. 21 that it will be ending carbon trading � the only purpose for which it was founded � this year.

Although the trading in carbon emissions credits was voluntary, the CCX was intended to be the hub of the mandatory carbon trading established by a cap-and-trade law, like the Waxman-Markey scheme passed by the House in June 2009.

At its founding in November 2000, it was estimated that the size of CCX�s carbon trading market could reach $500 billion. That estimate ballooned over the years to $10 trillion.

The CCX was the brainchild of Northwestern University business professor Richard Sandor, who used $1.1 million in grants from the Chicago-based left-wing Joyce Foundation to launch the CCX. For his efforts, Time named Sandor as one of its Heroes of the Planet in 2002 and one of its Heroes of the Environment in 2007.

The CCX seemed to have a lock on success. Not only was a young Barack Obama a board member of the Joyce Foundation that funded the fledgling CCX, but over the years it attracted such big name climate investors as Goldman Sachs and Al Gore�s Generation Investment Management.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the CCX�s highly anticipated looting of taxpayers and consumers � cap-and-trade imploded following its high water mark of the House passage of the Waxman-Markey bill. With ongoing economic recession, Climategate, and the tea party movement, what once seemed like a certainty became anything but.

CCX�s panicked original investors bailed out this spring, unloading the dog and its across-the-pond cousin, the European Climate Exchange (ECX), for $600 million to the New York Stock Exchange-traded Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) � an electronic futures and derivatives platform based in Atlanta and London. (Luckier than the CCX, the ECX continues to exist thanks to the mandatory carbon caps of the Kyoto Protocol.)

The ECX may soon follow the CCX into oblivion, however � the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. No new international treaty is anywhere in sight.

While we don�t know how well Al Gore and Goldman Sachs fared on their investments in the CCX, we do know that there�s no reason to cry for Sandor. He received $98.5 million for his 16.5% stake in CCX when it was sold. Not bad for a failure that somebody else financed.

Incredibly (but not surprisingly), although thousands of news articles have been published about CCX by the lamestream media over the years, a Nexis search conducted a week after CCX�s announcement revealed no news articles published about its demise.

Outside of a report in Crain�s Chicago Business and a soft-pedaled article in a small trade publication, the media has entirely ignored the demise of the only U.S. effort at carbon trading. Even Glenn Beck, who has dedicated quite a bit of Fox News airtime to exposing the CCX, has yet to mention the news. ...

With the demise of CCX carbon trading, only the still-pending Waxman-Markey bill is keeping cap and trade alive � technically, at least � in the U.S. According to JunkScience.com�s Cap-and-Trade Death Clock, however, Waxman-Markey only has about 60 days of life left before it, too, turns into a pumpkin.

My favorite comment to the article is #9 from B Rubble who writes ...

OMG!!!!! How�s Al doing? Is he okay? How will this impact his selfless work in saving the planet? More importantly, how will this impact his new digs in California, and his financial support of hotel masseuses willing to release his �second chakra�???? Will a loss of finances result in less settlement monies to Tipper? Will she have to settle on a crappier drum set to replace the ones she�s no doubt beat the bejeesus out of during her last few years of wedded bliss to ManBearPig?

A sad coda to the public life of such a sparkling personality and inspirational speaker.

The death of Cap-and-Trade is one of the reasons I said (in advance) that the election mattered.

A slowdown in fiscal insanity was another.

So yes, the Mid-Term Election Does Matter - It Really Does

In response to Election Predictions - How Big the Blowout? I received a fair number of comments from cynics who say the "election just does not matter, that nothing will change".

Sadly, this defeatist attitude is part of the reason we are in this mess.

To be sure, we are not going to see a return to a gold standard as a result of this election. We are unlikely to rewrite healthcare until it blows sky high (but that may be sooner than anyone thinks). Nor will we eliminate the Fed. And unfortunately, we will not stop war mongering.

Those are certainly very important issues, but they are not the only issues. At stake is the crucial direction of the country in regards to critical issues that desperately need a different direction.

For example, Cap-and-Trade is dead. That is a good thing. Many of Obama's socialist policies are dead in the water as well. The following headline highlights one key issue of critical importance.

Labor Unions Fear Rollback of Rights if G.O.P. Wins

Please consider Labor Unions Fear Rollback of Rights if G.O.P. Wins

....

Krugman Whining a Sign of Change in the Right Direction

One way you know the election matters is by the amount of whining Paul Krugman does. That whining gets louder each day. He wants more big government and more spending.

It's not going to happen, thanks to this election.

It should be crystal clear this election is about bailouts and fiscal spending. Conservatives have had enough. Sure there will be waste. However, there will be far less waste with the incoming Congress than the outgoing one.

Unfortunately, the one thing this election will not do is create jobs overnight. Yet in Congress, and in numerous state and local elections across the country we are slowly taking a step in the right direction when it comes to fiscal madness.

It's a start, but an important start.

If more cynics would stop bitching and moaning that nothing will change and start actively helping those like Jack Dean and Steve Greenhut to spread the word, while backing candidates like Chris Christie wherever they are, we would be even further along with this effort.

So yes, this election does matter. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Barring a late stage appearance by Al Gore's fairy-godmother, cap-and-trade is dead. That is a good thing.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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