mccain doesn't seem to understand his own carbon proposal. i guess it never occurred to him that a "cap and trade" proposal involves a "cap." (and cut the "non-mandatory cap" crap. unless it's mandatory, it's not a cap. it's just a suggestion).
a "cap and trade" policy is a policy that attempts to create a market for pollution permits. first you make it illegal for everyone to put a substance in the air without a permit (the "cap") and then you issue a limited number of permits and allow them to be bought and sold on the commodities market (the "trade"). the market then becomes the pollution control mechanism. but if the caps aren't mandatory, then no market can develop. why would an energy company pay for a permit to send a certain volume of carbon into the air if it could do it without penalty without a permit?
if the "caps" aren't mandatory, then there is no cap and trade. which leaves us with two possibilities: either mccain doesn't understand his own policy, or his "(non-mandatory) cap and trade" is a policy designed to to deceive people into believing he has a workable plan when, in fact, he doesn't. i think it's the former.
