I see that Henry Derwent, President and CEO of the International Emissions Trading Association in Geneva, Switzerland, is scheduled to testify at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on “Tax Aspects of a Cap-and-Trade System” later today. It took me a moment — as he seems to have switched jobs — but eventually I recalled my exposure to Mr. Derwent’s work in Europe, which is highly relevant to his testimony.

As I relate in my new book (or at least in the manuscript I sent off — which had far more pages than could possibly make it into print, there being so much material), Derwent traveled around Europe in 2006 — at the time, as a UK official working under Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown — selling a post-2012 cap-and-trade plan to EU member states understandably wary of taking on further CO2-reduction commitments.

After all, as we have serially established in this space, Europe’s emissions have continued to steadily climb since Europe agreed to Kyoto in 1997, something which the “first” Kyoto cap-and-trade plan — their Emissions Trading Scheme — did absolutely nothing to arrest, despite what you may hear today from the Senate.

When Mr. Derwent arrived in Madrid, between his meetings with the Ministries of the Environment and Economy, he asked to meet with a colleague of mine not affiliated with any governmental office (outside of his professorship at a local public university) who had been vocal in opposing the rationing plan. Fearing a realistic reassessment by Spain, Mr. Derwent indicated that he came bearing “temporary exemptions for energy-intensive industries” in order to gain Spain’s agreement for a deeper “Round II” promise. The key word for Spain here is “temporary.” The key message for the U.S from this episode is that ETS-type schemes chase jobs away. Spain knows this all too well, their Acerinox having graced our country with new steel jobs in Carroll County, KY, through its North American Stainless subsidiary.

I was informed in an amazed phone call after the meeting broke up that Mr. Derwent also indicated a willingness to plead on behalf of Spain in the (still ongoing) talks about new quotas. He expressed a willingness to assert that their “first” obligation represented a raw deal; that obligation was a “reduction” promise not to exceed a 15-percent increase over 1990 levels.

A Polish minister with whom I subsequently met informed me that the same crew, led by Derwent, also paid him a visit. My Polish hosts asked if I had an explanation for why the UK emissaries “had the zeal of missionaries” and were so heavy-handed, even moreso than Brussels. I didn’t, and still don’t.

There’s more, but let’s see what made it into the book. The sunny message of hope and change that we can expect to hear from Mr. Derwent’s this morning flies in the face of his past negotiating efforts — revealing a thorough and not-so-sunny understanding of the impact of cap-and-trade schemes. If ETS is such a success, perhaps Derwent can explain why Europe should increasingly threaten us with trade wars if we refuse to subject ourselves to a similar scheme? The gloomy fact is, the EU can’t afford the hit to their competitiveness for much longer.

– Chris Horner is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and author of the forthcoming Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Force, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed.