Christopher Helman  Christopher Helman, Forbes Staff
11/13/2009 @ 12:20AM  How Carbon Bill Would Hit Valero Energy
William Klesse, chief executive of oil refiner Valero Energy, is
riled up. “I think cap-and-trade is ludicrous,” he says. “The
whole bill is a hidden tax.” The so-called climate bill wending
its way through the Senate aims to create a cap-and-trade regime
covering emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
If it passes in anything close to its current form, the bill
would milk more carbon cash (payments to the government for the
right to pollute) out of refiners than any other
industry–somewhere between $30 billion and $110 billion a year.
Valero, as America’s biggest refiner (2.4 million barrels a
day), would pay on the order of $7 billion a year.  The numbers
are massive because the bill would hit refiners twice. First
they would have to pay for allocations covering the carbon
emissions from their factories (roughly 5% of total U.S.
emissions). Then they would also be responsibl