Cap-and-trade is harmful scheme
Published: July 1, 2009
The Democrats in the House of Representatives are trying to pass an emissions “cap and trade” bill, HR 2454, that will result in higher energy and manufacturing costs throughout our economy.
Much of the economic distress of the 1970s was blamed on energy costs, which rippled through the economy and raised prices on just about everything, reducing our standard of living.
Apparently, House Democrats have repealed all laws of economics, and their cap-and-trade scheme will not lead to economic distress today, or so they assure us. Never mind that similar schemes in Europe have been show to cause jobs to flee elsewhere.
Congressman Tom Perriello, Sen. Jim Webb and Sen. Mark Warner should inform us where they stand, and why, on this harmful and clueless proposal.
Clark Coleman
Albemarle County
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Reader Reactions
Robert, you are absolutely right. I hope everyone wakes up to prevent this huge new tax. America’s businesses will pack up and move overseas where there is no cap and trade. Energy taxes effect the poorest among us the most. Once again another bill passes without being read by our representatives, much less the American people. Where is the transparency?
America needs clean, cheap energy—not clean, expensive energy. I am a Democrat who thinks Congress is overplaying its hand. I fear their cap and trade legislation will double our energy costs over the years—even faster for gasoline. Plus, we’re going to see a lot of other unintended consequences. At 1,500 pages the bill is just too complicated, with too many moving parts. Why? There were 770 lobbyists registered to lobby on the bill and their fingerprints are all over the it.
Cap and trade will enrich a new class of financial speculator and cost Americans billions. It will also drive-out manufacturing of every description for competitive reasons. Even non-polluting Microsoft says it will move jobs overseas because cap and trade “makes U.S. jobs more expensive.“ It is worse than a tax because only 15% of the proceeds from auctioned permits go into our national treasury.
And the kicker? We’ll never even know if cap and trade ever worked.
If instead the United States had a national mandate to replace coal generation plants with natural gas and nuclear energy, plus if we replaced our commuter cars with battery-powered electric cars, we would drastically reduce our dependence on foreign oil and reduce CO2 emissions faster and beyond the proposed cap and trade targets.
—Robert Moen, www.energyplanUSA.com
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