Word: capped
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...would you like to get in on the action? National cap and trade may be reserved for the big players, but U.S. carbon emissions are made up of a billion individual decisions - including yours - every day: how much we drive, how much electricity we use, what we eat. Now a new website called My Emissions Exchange promises to bring the carbon market to your front yard. If you can drastically reduce the electricity you use in your home, the site will certify your personal emissions reductions and then broker those credits to companies looking to burnish their green reputations...
Reilly and Herrgesell acknowledge that the site is still in its early stages and will need refinement. Over the next two years, they're hoping to get at least 1 million members and establish the site as a clearinghouse for information on energy efficiency. The future of cap and trade will be decided in Congress, not on the Internet - but My Emissions Exchange does give a little power to the people, and that's not a bad thing. "We're realistic about the challenges ahead of us," says Herrgesell. "But I think we can make this market work...
...longer than the recession has. Over the past generation, Florida's explosive but fecklessly managed growth drove up real estate values, and therefore property taxes, beyond the reach of more and more families. In the 1990s the state adopted a "homestead" measure which, when homeowners become eligible for it, caps their assessed property-value increases at 3% a year (part-time residents don't qualify). But when houses are sold, a far higher base assessment usually applies, creating absurd situations in which neighbors with similar properties pay wildly disparate taxes. And during the boom, in expensive markets like South Florida...
...recession is falling real estate markets and rising property taxes," says Kurt Wenner, research director at Florida Tax Watch in Tallahassee. A 2008 state reform, as well as another scheduled to go into effect next year, has reduced some of Florida's property-tax burden by making the cap more generous and accessible to more residents. But because of arcane provisions in the homestead law, government appraisers can tell a homeowner that although his house's current market value may be as depressed as a Florida sinkhole, its taxable value is still high or rising. More important, many...
...shrinking, according to the report by a consortium of federal agencies and research groups. One potential casualty: maple-syrup production, which may be displaced from New England to Canada as temperatures rise. The sobering report is sure to draw notice on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are debating a landmark "cap and trade" emissions proposal...