Hey, the Post has numbers on public opinion regarding cap-and-trade. They’re generally favorable. Here are some interesting quotes:

Debate over the cap-and-trade approach has focused on the cost to the average American. The Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that cap and trade would cost the average U.S. household $175 a year in 2020, but House Republicans have pushed the message that the legislation would cost many times that and drive millions of jobs offshore.

That message has failed to sway liberal and moderate Republicans, 60 percent of whom back a cap-and-trade program, but it appeals to the party’s conservative base.

Really? Some 60% of liberal and moderate Republicans support cap-and-trade? That seems truly remarkable. Not among that 60% is this person:

Tiffany Collins, 31, a part-time children’s activity director at a church and a mother of four in Riverside, Calif., said she does not think greenhouse gases are causing climate change. She said she read a report on the Internet saying climate change was linked to changes in the sun’s activity. But in any case, she does not support government intervention. “I’m opposed to the government overregulating just about everything. It costs us money, and they don’t do a very good job of it,” she said.

Ugh. And here’s something that’s not at all surprising:

One of the sharpest dividing lines in attitudes toward climate legislation was age, with younger adults more receptive to cap and trade and federal regulation of greenhouse gases. Nearly two-thirds of those younger than 30 said they support cap and trade, and eight in 10 support federal limits on emissions. Among seniors, about four in 10 said they back a cap-and-trade proposal, and half favor federal intervention on emissions.

This is a real problem. One never knows, of course, but I like to think that in 2050 I’ll be alive and active, with maybe twenty more years ahead of me. Were I to have a kid sometime soon, he’d be in early middle age in 2050, potentially having a child of his own, and he’d probably expect to see 2100, when the United States will be quite a bit hotter. But someone who is currently in their 70s? For them, this is all academic. Here’s the really unforunate thing. The legislature in this country is very old, and it’s overwhelmingly elected by people who are also old. Paying more in energy costs to save the planet is easier to swallow when you expect to be on the planet for a long time to come.