WSJ Blogs  Real-time commentary and analysis from The Wall
Street Journal Environmental Capital  Waxman-Markey: Cap-and-
Trade With Too Loose a Cap?  Is the U.S. in danger of repeating
the same mistake that doomed Europe’s first crack at a cap-and-
trade system to fight climate change?   Time to recaculate?  The
folks at the Breakthrough Institute think so. Because the
Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill passed by the House
calculated greenhouse-gas emissions for the U.S. economy before
the recession, the bill seems to be over-generous with emissions
permits. That means that U.S. businesses would have very little
need to clean up their act at all for the first few years of the
program, the Breakthrough Institute says.  In a nutshell: The
economic slowdown that began last year whacked more than just
economic activity—it also cut greenhouse-gas emissions sharply.
Globally, in fact, the recession may have led to the biggest
decline in emissions in nearly half a century.  That means there
is a lot more slack in t