A colleague passes along a petition filed by Duke Energy last Tuesday (see below — and see also this Charlotte Observer article). The company is seeking a 13.5 percent increase in household electric rates, and cites as its rationale the possible enactment of cap-and-trade legislation! “Hey, I’m afraid we need a rate hike, in anticipation of this new tax we’ve been the biggest cheerleader for (since we’ve put together a scheme to profit off it six ways from Sunday).”

Would you be surprised if I told you Duke Energy’s chief is a Ken Lay protege and former Enron executive?

What’s good for Duke Energy is terrible for the U.S., to put a new twist on an old phrase. And this pain they want you to feel — to their benefit and to feed others’ political vanity — is completely in vain. Even if you accept every assumption of the alarmist thesis, China saying not only no but hell no to binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions leaves zero dispute that the Obama Energy Tax will do precisely nothing to detectably impact the climate. For Duke — foremost among the USCAP team practicing the world’s second-oldest profession — cap-and-trade is about seeking rent, not saving the planet.