The fine folks in Congress seem determined to wrestle Florida's already gimpy housing market into the dirt. The proposed "cap and trade" environmental bill includes a provision that's sure to depress home sales. From the Web site Politico:

That bill contains 397 new regulations. One of them would affect almost everyone who buys or sells a home. If Waxman-Markey becomes law, homes for sale that qualify as “federally related transactions” — which is almost all of them — would be required to undergo an environmental inspection.

Inspections are not free. Nor is fixing the inevitable violations. Compliance with new energy-efficiency standards would make homes, especially older ones, more expensive. Selling one’s home would become even harder than it already is in this down market if Waxman-Markey-style cap and trade becomes law.

And that is just one of the unintended consequences.

Suppose you have a window that isn’t quite airtight or your appliances are a little too old. Maybe they’re not Energy Star certified. You’d have to replace them before you would be allowed to sell your home.

The result could be the end of fixer-upper homes; surely, this is not what Congress has in mind. Some families prefer to buy a home in less-than-stellar condition on the cheap and make repairs and upgrades themselves.

Here's a thought: Let consumers, guided by their own sense of frugality, decide what appliances and building features to install in their homes. Such legislative overreach smacks of neo-Puritanism - the fear that someone, somewhere is living larger than yourself.

I want to install an attic fan to vent heat from under my roof. It should cool the upstairs and spare the air conditioner. But I'll do it at my own speed. My motivation has nothing to do with an invisible odorless gas called carbon dioxide. I want to cut my electric bill $50 a month.