Does the steel industry have a vested interest in legislation now pending in Congress?

If the media reporting is accurate (always a concern), the industry seems to be maintaining a very low profile on the most controversial bills now queued up behind health care reform. Cap and trade, "card check" and "Stimulus III" are all lurking out there. And, of course, the recent "endangerment" finding by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presages a threat to a balky Congress increasingly conscious of the upcoming 2010 elections.

Cap and trade as currently envisioned would most dramatically damage the fabric of our country as we now know it. How would this occur? Most of our nation's electric power is currently produced by coal-fired power generating plants. Compliance with cap and trade would permit coal as a fuel only if the carbon...