Many of my readers are to the left of me (politically). There are provisions in the Cap & Trade Bill that the Senate will debate next week that make it look like a repeat of the Patriot Act.

First, I will point out my bias. I don't think that agw is happening. I think climate change is natural, and that man's influence on climate is miniscule at best. I also think we should have an extremely limited government.

OK, on to Cap & Trade:

1. The bill is a huge tax increase. Estimates that I've seen show that this will be a $3,000 tax per household in the US. This will be through far higher costs of electricity, heating and cooling.

2. No one knows what's in the bill. The bill was voted on by the House with no one representative having read it. A 300-page amendment was added just before voting.

3. Details are beginning to slip out. One is that mandatory home audits are included in the bill. I've also seen that building codes will be national instead of local. That in itself makes no sense; for example, there's little earthquake risk in South Florida and little hurricane risk in North Dakota.

4. Mish has a post noting that job loss under this bill will be something over 1 million.

5. Even proponents of the measure do not believe that it will have an appreciable impact on climate change.

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This measure is a job killer. It's an economy wrecker. I doubt that any Senator has read it. It's being put on the fast track because if it's read, it's certain to be defeated. I urge you to contact your Senators and let them know that this measure belongs in the trash can.

That's how many people entered Day 1B today. That's even less than I thought, and brings the two-day total to 1,989. If 3,000 entered each of the next two days (and that's not happening) the total would be 7,989. I do think 2,000 a day is possible; that would be 5,989. Anyway, here are the numbers:

Day 1A: 1,287 (2007) vs. 1,297 (2008) vs. 1,116 (2009)
Day 1B: 1,541 (2007) vs. 1,158 (2008) vs. 873 (2009)
Day 1C: 1,743 (2007) vs. 1,928 (2008) vs. ?,??? (2009)
Day 1D: 1,787 (2007) vs. 2,461 (2008) vs. ?,??? (2009)

Total: 2007: 6,358 vs. 2008: 6,844 vs. 2009 ?,???.

Day 1A decreased by 14% from 2008; Day 1B decreased by 25%. We'll see what happens with Days 1C and 1D.