$30 per ton of carbon emissions

Yesterday I was in Houston helping to wrap up my project and create training materials. I was scheduled to fly back home on the 4:30 flight to Dallas-Love Field. I arrived with plenty of time to spare. What I haven't mentioned is the torrential downpour that had been happening in north Houston on Thursday. Apparently the weather delayed the flight... and most every other flight flying into Houston. For the flights that it did not direclty delay it delayed the crew who were to work each individual flight so everything just went crazy.

By about 3:30 my flight had been delayed until 5:11, which was fine. However the gate changed from gate b70 to b65 which was in another hub. So I walked there. Once I had arrived I noticed that the gate had then changed to b81, which was in another hub. I walked to b81 to find that the flight had been delayed until 8:20... OK. I waited in line and spoke to a service rep ho gave me a standby pass for the 6:30 flight (which was previously the 5:30 flight). It was in b84f, which was an extension hub of another hub on the opposite side of the terminal. I walked down there. b84f. After walking down there and going to the bathroom I thought I would go have some dinner. Schlotzsky's. It was good for airport food. I then walked out to double check which flight was doing better. My first flight or the flight that I was on standby for. The standby flight had been moved to b63 or something so I walked there. After reading for a bit I looked up and the gate no longer had info on it for dallas-love. I walked and checked the monitor... it had been cancelled, but my original flight had been moved up to take it's place at 6:30. It was in another hub.

I walked there. At this point everything becomes fuzzy. I think I remember having to swap to another hub only to find out that it was still going to be taking off from b81a. I had a nice relaxing sit in the b81a hub area. To my consternation my flight was now listed on the monitors as departing from terminal b-... yup b-, no number. I asked the service rep what was going on. He said the dallas flight was still taking off from there but the terminals were now overbooked so it was left without a number. I sat and read. After sitting waiting at b81a for flight 2155 to Dallas-Love it turns out that that it is to take off from b83... but it was only a few feet from my current sitting position. The plane took off at about 7:20, and I made it home safely.

You might be wondering what the title of the blog post has to do with anything. I always keep a magazine or two with me on these business trips. In situations like this I can't read a novel as easily, and magazines are perfect since I can devour an article in a few minutes. "The Economist" got a good read from cover to cover and "The Atlantic" was about 3/4 finished when I landed in Dallas. If you have never read the economist, let me describe it to you. It's dry. There is no fluff. Imagine a magazine full of editorials on politics, business, trade, and world news. No celebrities, no movies, no entertainment, no fluff pieces, or even embedded reports (there may be embedded reports but the they avoid personalizing any articles). It consists of stats, projections, opinion, and politics. I love it. It's concise and it's now my first line of world news. This last issue was the energy issue. There was a proud number cruncher feeding the writing staff, and the writing staff ate it up. Their consistency has thoroughly convinced me that a $30 tax or offset per metric ton of carbon equivalent emissions would represent a proper counter to the negative externality of climate change on the energy market. They mentioned it about a dozen times.

I agree. Seriously. After Bailey argued for it, I'm for it too. Except that I'm not. I can't figure out how the poor would cope, with such a substantial increase in their already high energy prices.