Though Michigan has been in the economic doldrums for quite a while, things are getting worse, with an 8.5% unemployment rate recorded for May. (The national rate for the same month: 5.5%)

So you'd think this would be a bad time to do anything to make it more expensive to operate a business.

Russ Harding, director of the Property Rights Network for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, comments on the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Accord, which would implement a cap-and-trade system.

He warns: "A cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gases could be devastating to Michigan's economy and have no discernible impact on global climate change. "