By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Sarah Palin has weighed in against the costly, controversial and complicated cap-and-trade plan passed by the U.S. House. Surprise: She scores some points. But she also misses on others.

In her opinion column in today's Washington Post, Palin correctly talks about how the bill, as written, could kill jobs in the current energy sectors.

People who design and build coal-fired plants, for example, aren't going to be in high demand if President Barack Obama gets his way.

And Palin makes a point that liberal critics have to concede: Energy supplies today are constant and relatively low-priced. The cost of oil and gasoline? Barely half what they were at this point in 2008. The cost of natural gas? More than 60 percent lower than last year, going into the winter buying months.

So, as Palin points out, it's difficult to rally people around the threat that they really need to do something drastic to change how much they pay for energy and how it's produced.

When Palin writes she believes the plan "is an enormous threat to our economy," she at least has some good reasons to talk that way.

However, Palin's comments on cap-and-trade also obscure some key points.

When she says the policy would inflict huge financial damage on low-income families, she leaves out the part where the policy would use rebates and tax credits to help wipe out that damage to those families.

Palin also includes next to nothing on one of the primary reasons behind cap-and-trade -- the desire to reduce harmful emissions (mostly from coal-fired plants) that are leading to global warming.

Finally, Palin goes off on a tangent about how the cap-and-trade bill may "outsource" our energy supply to China and other countries. That's not really on target.