Cap and Trade Analysis, But When?

Interesting post over at Michelle Malkin’s site.  The RSC has a note that Rep. Chaffetz is looking for co-sponsors on a bill that would require full disclosure of the cap-and-trade burden on rateholders.  Says RSC:

With this legislation, every utility customer – residential and business — will be able to identify the cost of cap-and-trade emissions that the utility is passing on to the customer. As regulated entities, utilities pass taxes on to customers, unlike unregulated companies that can also pass taxes on to shareholders and employees.

Interesting idea.  And I’m pretty much for it.  I think we need to think about the implications.  First, the utility would actually have to spend a lot of money trying to figure out how much it would actually cost in the first place.  If this is after the thought, it’s too late to change.  If it’s being asked to do it prior to initiating the new expense, then they’ll likely get bogged down and never be able to implement.  Like Woody said below, we’re passing regulations into the pipe, and then looking at consequences later.  This could be more of the same.

I’m all for transparency.  I want to make sure that the effort for transparency doesn’t further grind actual innovation to a halt.