Date: Saturday, 24 January 2009, 11:10 p.m.
It's always about money, isn't it.
Obama's plan to implement a cap & trade program is supposed to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 80%. It could also sink the badly battered U.S. economy into a deeper depression. For consumers, cap and trade will mean more expensive gasoline and electricity. These energy costs will be very hard upon the poor and elderly. The same poor that Obama has promised a tax break to. I guess we know what they will spend it on, heat!
Obama is also quick to announce millions of 'green' jobs that could be created by this new movement. What he, and his entourage, fail to mention is that millions of jobs will also be lost . Some factories will close up, mainly in the manufacturing sector. Others will be shipped overseas. This new cap & trade system will raise manufacturing costs, and developing nations won't have these same restrictions. America will see further outsourcing of factories and factory jobs to those nations with lower energy costs. It's simple economics.
Of course Obama knows this. So does Hillary and every one of them.
What is Cap and trade?
A cap and trade system is a method for managing pollution, at least it's suppose to be. I think it's Wall Streets latest way to make and sell credit.
Under a cap and trade system, the government sets a cap on how much pollution will be allowed. Each company will be issued credits, depending on how large they are. Some, in highly toxic manufacturing, will get more. If a company comes in below it's 'cap' it can 'trade' (just like stocks on Wall Street) those credits with other companies that might need more. The companies that need 'more' credits will pass that cost on to the consumer.
The chemical giant DuPont, received a 900% return for selling, trading and bargaining credits. This is one of the reasons why economists refer to cap and trade schemes as creating a carbon cartel. The credits can be dealt with like commodities.
On the link below you'll find a story of how a factory, in India, used this cap & trade system to earn $600 million in emission credits. They spent only $3 million to install new 'green' equipment. What a profit!
As this man says, "Carbon trading is excellent for the fraudster, good for the robber baron, ineffective for the environment, bad for the economy as a whole and disastrous for the poor. No wonder Enron liked it."
Susoni
****************************************Cap And Trade: A System Made For Fraudsters
(snip)by Iain Murray
May 1, 2007
Ever since Enron decided that carbon trading would "do more to promote Enron's business than almost any other regulatory initiative," informed observers have been wary of the idea.Yet the idea of creating a new commodity by capping emissions of greenhouse gases and issuing tradable permits to produce the emissions has gained ground as hysteria over effects of global warming has grown.
Now, two separate investigations have demonstrated why carbon caps and trading are bad ideas, and why they were so attractive to Enron.
(SNIP)
Fraud Revealed
The poorest fifth of the population suffers worst, losing about 3% of its take-home household income. The richest fifth, on the other hand, increase its take-home pay. Only if there is some carbon welfare bureaucracy to administer rebate payments do lower-income families benefit, but that almost triples the cost to the economy as a whole.
All of this, moreover, is the effect of a very modest cut in emissions in the year 2010, certainly not enough to have any impact on warming temperatures. Some sectors of the economy would likely be hit extremely hard — like the 80,000 people who depend on coal mining for their living.
Link:
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