Cap and Trade- Bad to Worse

When good minds that are experts on a matter are negative on an issue and politicians with no real first hand knowledge on that same matter keep trying to convince everyone that it is positive, at the very least, smart minds should want to take a step back and dig deeper into the matter to find the realities.

This is where we are with the issues of Cap and Trade as it relates to carbon emissions in the United States.

Three former energy secretaries have come out negatively on this whole issue on Cap and Trade.

The environmentalist and the current administration are bent on putting in a Cap and Trade program for carbon emissions as part of an overall policy on environment and global warming (another very controversial topic that I will address in another blog) with an eye towards additional governmental steps into a mind numbing path towards socialism of a type that is of significant concern to many American citizens and corporations.

Here are some common sense considerations:

A cap and trade program will not make one iota of difference on the issue it is being touted to manage. Why? Because cap and trade does not take one ounce of carbon dioxide emissions out of the environment. It is only a monetary offset wherein someone or some company putting large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere can pay a price to be able to continue doing it.

This has been studied even by human nature experts who concluded that this cap and trade push is like having someone pay a fine for arriving late to a meeting as opposed to locking the door at a certain time and not letting them into the meeting if they are late.

By paying the fine, arriving late is no longer viewed by the late comer as a behavior that they need to change, rather, they feel entitled to arrive late without any remorse or recriminations because they paid the fine. In a sense the fine becomes a means to extend the arrival time for those who need or want to pay the fine for the right to arrive late.

The behavior has not been altered nor a reason provided to incentivize altering the behavior.

This is what a cap and trade system will produce, among other negative results and some unintended consequences.

Al Gore, the inventor of global warming and environmental hysteria, uses 20 times more energy than the average American homeowner or citizen.

He does not consider that fact to be hypocritical as he lectures most of America on their energy use and "carbon footprint" because as he states proudly, he has purchased sufficient offsets to make himself "carbon neutral".

Common sense tells me that if you want to change behavior you have to do something more than offer the individual whose behavior you want to change a price to be able to continue in the same behavior that needs changed.

The alternative to this cap and trade program would be to offer tax incentives coupled with stiff close down rules for continued emissions violations to add the equipment necessary to reduce emissions at the facilities deemed to be emitting CO2 or any material that is deemed to be damaging to the environment or contributing to global warming.

This not only will actually reduce emissions it will in a very real manner add to economic stimulus and job creation.


So, come on Mr. Obama and Congress, let's get real and stop playing word games or offering rhetoric that will not reduce but rather add to the emission problems because what is being spewed into the atmosphere with all this rhetoric is polluting and hot air adding to global warming.

Someone has to say it--- I just did.

Cheers,

Sam