I sent the below letter to my new VA Senators yesterday to urge them to withdrawal their support from the bloated and obscured bill that will likely be up for vote tomorrow afternoon. Merry Christmas Virginian’s, your state senator’s cast a vote to show that they have done something for the reason that something needs to be done, not becuase its right and the change will be beneficial. You can read both their statements at their respective websites (Senator Webb) and (Senator Warner).
I am writing to ask you …

The House of Representatives is planning on voting this week on the week Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. This bill requires entities to hold one allowance for any fuel whose combustion would emit one ton of greenhouse gas. The below image shows the Heritage foundations estimation of the costs of this program.

There has been push back from environmentalist for the lack of stringency of the bill (see this op-ed), whereas conservatives criticize the bill for the negative consequences to the economy and increased costs to households (see this report).
For me …

I came across a good article on Soft Paternalism on NPR, Using Psychology to Save You from Yourself.
The basic concept of Soft Paternalism, or so its supports claim, is derived from Behavioral Economics, which is,
a school of economic thought greatly influenced by psychological research — which argues that the human animal is hard-wired to make errors when it comes to decision-making, and therefore people need a little “nudge” to make decisions that are in their own best interests. And that is exactly what Obama administration officials plan to do: …

I came across the group ‘The Cap Solution‘ through a few different avenues, energy industry related research, at the public library as an advertisement in the front hall, and at the local farmers market on a bulletin board. The Cap Solution is consortium of the Environmental Defense Fund, the Blue/Green Alliance, and the United Steel Workers.
Here’s what they stand for:

The cap solution in a nutshell
Capping carbon pollution encourages the growth of renewable energy and energy-efficient industries. It brings customers to these businesses, which in turn will create good jobs …