The Waxman-Markey Global Warming Bill--Is the Economic Pain Justified By the Environmental Gain?

I’ll be discussing the economics of global warming policy, especially the cost of the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill currently working its way through the House of Representatives. I’ll focus on The Heritage Foundation’s economic analysis of that bill. But before I do that I wanted to set out a framework with which to judge Waxman-Markey or any other measure offered up as a solution to the global warming problem -- a set of questions that need to be answered before we enact any global warming measures, especially costly ones.

So as I discuss the costs of the Waxman-Markey bill, keep this framework in mind: How much of a problem are we addressing in the first place, to what extent are we reducing the problem assuming it does exist, has our chosen approach worked when it has been tried elsewhere, and is this really the best approach of all the options available? These are the questions we need to have answered before we can judge whether the costs of Waxman-Markey and its cap and trade approach are worth it.