As I was slogging through the text of the Cap and Trade bill this weekend, something struck me.  All of the stories I have done on this bill have never mentioned how much it would cost.

That's usually a normal item to mention, like some bill costs "$2.6 billion" or "$455 million."

So I searched the internet and found that no one else was giving any hard and fast estimates either.

What started me thinking about it was one thing that arose out of the debate, a $50 million promise that Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Florida) won from Democratic leaders for a hurricane research center in his home district around Orlando.

But how would that money be funded? From money that would come in from polluters buying permits to emit pollutants that lead to global warming.

In other words, it's an earmark from the money raised by the global warming bill.

And you know that won't be the last one, eh?

As for how much this thing is going to cost, you can come up with a lot of different answers, depending on how you go through the bill.

One thing I zeroed in on were certain parts of the bill that were entitled "Authorization of Appropriations."

In other words, the bill "authorizes" the Congress to spend certain amounts for certain items in the Cap and Trade legislation.

But in many cases, it authorizes a never ending amount of money, just "such sums" as might be necessary.

"There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this paragraph," it says on page 24 of the Waxman Amendment.

Oh, you just gotta like that one. "Such sums as may be necessary."

I think I would call that an open-ended appropriation.

That was in Section 123, dealing with "Plug In Electric Drive Vehicle Manufacturing."

So it made me wonder. How much more money is authorized in this bill? Here is what I found.