How will Cap And Trade affect all of us and what will it cost?

What IS Cap and Trade?

Basically that "Cap" is a total emission output cap on any polluting company inside the US. So picture your electric company, they put out Carbon Dioxide as they burn coal for electricity, (Carbon Dioxide is what every living mammal exhales when we breathe). The limits would be set to be strict to begin with, making them turn down output, and the restrictions would get Stricter year after year.

The "Trade" part allows companies that produce fewer emissions then they are allowed to can sell their allowance to the companies that overproduce emissions for cash transactions.

The Government will set up a market for this trade and collect a percentage of all the transaction. Some companies including General Electric (Parent Company of CNN, MSNBC, NBC and CNBC) are already working on technology to streamline this transition and positioning them to be very profitable from this transition.



Here is a quote from the Center For American Progress on what the government can do with the money raised: "it would create a large and dependable revenue stream. These financial resources could be used to achieve critical public policy objectives related to climate change mitigation and economic development."

So Global Warming becomes Climate change when it is discovered that the world is not warming nearly as fast as we thought. Then we make laws to control global warming anyway, even though it’s not quite global warming anymore. Last we use the money from those laws to enact more "critical public policy objectives" related to the Global Warming, that well isn’t really quite global warming. This is limilar to GM, soon to be Governement Green Motors under the new control that the Obama Administration has.

Okay now that we know what Cap And Trade is, how will it affect us? A Liberal organization at MIT did a study earlier this year that puts the Consumer cost of Cap and Trade as it is proposed at $1600-$4900 per household. Unfortunately it is not something you can hide from, if Gas taxes are raised you can ride your bike, but this tax will affect EVERYTHING you buy. The CEO of a Pennsylvania Power company said that electricity rates will go up by 60% and that their company has EVERY intention of passing 100% of the costs onto consumers. The trickledown effect is astounding when you think about it, you fridge is made in a factory, and to replace it will cost more. Your electricity will obviously cost more and so will your Laundry Detergent, your Shampoo, and the new laptop you were trying to buy. Your produce isn’t made in a factory and neither is beef from the store, but they are raised with Farm Equipment, that will cost the farmer more to buy as well as the pesticides he uses on the produce.

The effect on the economy unfortunately goes even farther than just what it will cost you and your family. A Concrete manufacture that employs 80 people in Los Angeles said on CNBC that if Cap and Trade takes effect it will cost him much more to manufacture Concrete than his competition just south across the border. He will likely close down and retire, leaving the most of the Concrete for LA to be manufactured in Mexico, where they have even lower standards for emissions then here. On a Per Unit basis (in this case cubic yards of concrete) MORE pollution will be generated AND US jobs will be lost. This is just typical of MANY companies that will face rising costs and mounting foreign competition.

In Truth, something needs to be done about pollution and CO2 Emissions. I really believe in taking care of our planet and "cleaning up" after the human race is important, but this is clearly NOT the way to do it. More things will be made in other countries that are not regulated like Canada, Mexico, China, and India. More jobs will be lost and the US consumer will bear the burden of some real steep taxes.

Link to MIT Study