But How Much Better?

Something is better than nothing -- but how much better?

01/14/2011 - Cap-and-trade is dead. But it looks like a renewable energy standard of some sort has a chance of passage. As energy economists Robert Stavins and Dick Schmalensee observe, this is ridiculous: In addition to being "less effective and more costly" than cap-and-trade, a renewable energy standard relies more on a blunt government mandate (though there is some trading) than on the market. So how did cap-and-trade get replaced by a more statist, less effective, more expensive policy? {continued}