In ClimateWire Darren Samuelson has a very nice roundup of the current state of play of cap and trade legislation. The following statement from Congressman Mike Doyle (D-PA) aptly sums up why I think that cap and trade will both pass as law and do little or nothing to reduce emissions:

“Remember, this is an 80 percent reduction by 2050,” Doyle said. “This is 2009. We’ve got 41 years in this deal, and we shouldn’t be so worried about the first 10 years. Because if we can’t mitigate the economic impact of the first 10 years, we’re not going to have a bill anyway. You’re just not going to build public support for it and members of Congress to vote for it.”