High Emotion and High Stake

Today the news is that the federal bailout package for Wall Street was shot down in the House of Representatives by a small margin of 13 votes. Bush was disappointed, and I think many common people are relieved, for now. Listening to NPR, the word on the street is mostly against the bailout package, and the ones supporting it are saying it because they believe the bailout is necessry for US to avoid a bad depression.

The S&P 500 were down 8.77% today, which is a big drop for a one-day period. Based on media coverage, I felt that this thing is overly hyped and maybe there are many people who went ahead and sold their holdings because of these negative opinions. Maybe I can buy up a little more of these lower priced shares.

On another front, last week the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) held an auction for green house gas emission allowance for the 10 states in the Northeast region. The states are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. This is the first time a cap and trade system is implemented for carbon dioxide, which is believe by some people to be contributing to climate change. RGGI is aimed to hold the current emission of CO2 at the current level until 2014 and then lower it by 10% by 2018. The hope is that it can serve as a model for a national cap and trade system. The price for electricity and other things is expected to go up as the utilities pass the burdon to consumers.

This year the auction sold 12.5 million tons at $3.07 per ton. My apartment uses about 2000 kWh per year, that's about 4000 pounds of CO2, or 2 short tons. Will I see a $6 increase in my annual utility bill?