The last recent months have shown an interesting facet of legislation and its relation with the problem of global warming. The effectiveness of our legislators in creating new laws to confront this crisis remains to be seen. The recent passing of the carbon cap-and-trade bill sponsored by Democratic Representatives Henry Waxman and Edward Markey, has been the first step of Congress and the Obama administration to tackle this issue.
The basic change under the cap-and-trade bill is that it will limit the amount of carbon that U.S. companies can produce. If they exceed the limit (“cap”) of carbon emissions imposed, they can purchase (“trade”) carbon allowances or permits to cover for the excess emissions. The money received from the purchase of these allowances will be used to invest on environmentally friendly companies and, could also be distributed to low income families to help them with costs of energy use.
The cap-and-trade bill has brought a lot of skepticism since the House Energy and Commerce Committee was planning on it back in April. A major example is given by the criticism received by Coal manufacturing states like, Illinois and West Virginia. There is a concern that the bill could prove to be fatal for their coal mining industry. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Rep. Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va) criticized the bill since the beginning of the year and it is easy to understand why. According to a study by the National Mining Association, coal mining provides more than half of the nation’s electricity, generates more than 550,000 jobs nationwide, and contributes $8.2 billion in payroll.
There is a general fear that the bill could potentially bring more pressure to the economy in three areas: damage the U.S. manufacturing sector and force jobs to move overseas, lead to higher energy prices to consumers, and ineffective to stop global warming in the future.
Six months prior the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen, it is clear that government intends to make an effort to adapt to climate change and reduce the impact of global warming. The effort is encouraging and progressive in ideals, but the costs of the change and its impact still remains unclear. The Global Humanitarian Forum report titled: “ Human Impact Report: Climate Change – The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis.”, warns us that 300 million lives are already seriously affected by gradual warming of the earth. Global warming is here, it is real, and is important to create new laws to change the way we manage our energy, deal with pollution, and respect our nature. I hope this is just the beginning of a new administration willing to put a step forward and confront this important issue. It is time for the United States to consider natural conservation and environmental prosperity our priorities on health policy.
For more info visit the following websites:
- http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13697284
- http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/06/05/05greenwire-experts-plumb-cap-and-trade-bill-in-search-of-27655.html
- http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/05/29/annan.climate.change.human/
Comments
Global warming is NOT here (the Earth is actually cooling). Global warming is NOT real (it's a ridiculous myth)! And it is MORONIC to create new laws (and kill the U.S. economy) to solve an imaginary problem.
No patriotic and informed American can support the ACES Act (global warming/cap and trade scam), a huge Ponzy scheme that will kill the U.S. economy.
Cap and Trade "would be the equivalent of an atomic bomb directed at the U.S. economy—all without any scientific justification," says famed climatologist Dr. S. Fred Singer. It would significantly increase taxes and the cost of energy, forcing many companies to close, thus increasing unemployment, poverty and dependence.
Cap and trade represents huge taxes and cost increases, which will hurt mostly the poor and the middle class while further empowering and enriching Obama and his fraudulent billionaire friends (Gore, Soros, Goldman Sachs, Obama’s Chicago Climate Exchange friends, GE, the United Nations, etc.).
Man-made global warming is a HOAX.
More and more scientists and thinking people all over the world are realizing that man-made global warming is a hoax that threatens our future and the future of our children.
More than 700 international scientists dissent over man-made global warming claims. They are now more than 13 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers.
Additionally, more than 30,000 American scientists have signed onto a petition that states, "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate."
Please do what you can to defend your family and your country. Write to your RepresentativeS.
So what? Any US cuts will be overwhelmed by Chinese emission growth:
In 2006, China added 90 gigawatts of coal fired power capacity—enough to emit over 500 million tons of CO2 per year for 40 years; by comparison, the European Union’s entire Kyoto reduction commitment is 300 million tons of CO2.
According to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, China added more than 90 GW of new coal-fired power plant capacity in 2006 alone -- "more than the entire fleet of generating plants in the United Kingdom."
China has one of the largest coal reserves in the world, and coal accounts for 67% of its primary energy use, compared with 24% for the world average. China is currently bringing two additional coal-fired power plants to the electric power grid every week. In a hypothetical scenario in which carbon intensity keeps pace with a GDP growth rate of 7%, by 2030, China would be emitting as much as the world as a whole is today (8 GtC/year) --Ning Zeng et al., Science, 8 February 2008
The world's emissions of the main planet-warming gas CO2 will rise over 50% to more than 42 billion tonnes per year from 2005 to 2030 as China leads a rise in burning coal, the U.S. government forecast on Wednesday. China's coal demand will rise 3.2% annually from 2005 to 2030, the Energy Information Administration said in its International Energy Outlook 2008. -Reuters, 26 Jun 08
Any carbon diet strategy would be dependent upon clean coal:
"The vast majority of new power stations in China and India will be coal-fired; not "may be coal-fired"; will be. So developing carbon capture and storage technology is not optional, it is literally of the essence." --"Breaking the Climate Deadlock," Tony Blair, 26 Jun 08
An energy expert at the University of Manitoba has estimated that capturing and burying just 10% of the carbon dioxide emitted over a year from coal-fire plants at current rates would require moving volumes of compressed CO2 greater than the total annual flow of oil worldw
It is beyond stupid that we would cripple our industry and send job over seas to places like Pakistan, India and China where they have no restrictions what so ever-My older Brother is a senior VP of a large company and has to travel to those countries and when he sees what they are doing to the environment he is appalled-This cap & trade mess, the Kyoto (forgive my spelling) accords etc. would only pollute the planet further and impact our climate-we are the richest nation on earth and guess what? We are also the cleanest- We are cleaner than the more progressive European Democracies who are always harping on this stuff, but do not keep up their own back yards.
Exelente refleccion.Pienso en los intereses,que defienden los quecontrovierten el articulo ,definitivamente,las multinacionales interesadas en que no se tomen medidas.pagan a estos brutos.
eSTOY DE ACUERDO CON EL ARTÍCULO.ESBRUTO PENSAR QUE QUIEN CONTAMINA MENOS NO HACE TAMBIEN DAÑO,COMO TRATA DE DECIR UNO DE LOS QUE CONTROVIERTE.TODOEL QUE CONTAMINA DEBE DEJAR DE HACERLO. EN MAYOR O MENOR MEDIDA .
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