Cap and Trade: All Pain; No Gain

The U.S. government's General Accountability Office (GAO) has come out with a report on the European Union's cap and trade program (they called Emissions Trading Scheme or ETS).  The news ain't good.

As the GAO reports (PDF file) in couched bureaucratic language that the ETS did not reduce greenhouse gas emissions but did raise the price of electricity and fossil fuels.

In other words, all pain, no gain (if you call cutting back greenhouse gasses "gain").

And cap and trade is most likely what is going to come out of the cesspool of Washington D.C.