Comments on: Can Washington make a carbon cap fit?

There's a good chance that U.S. carbon regulations will be established in the next year, a financial foundation that will drive demand for green technologies, experts say.

[Spartan_458]

I love being taxed for exhaling. [/sarcasm]

[William Crow]

Its not about carbon.

[lkrupp]

I'll put my carbon footprint up against Al Gore's carbon footprint any day. How about mandating carbon credit trading between individuals? That way Al Gore and Sean Penn would have to buy credits from you and me to continue their extravagant life styles.

[Endbringer]

Where in the Constitution does it give power to our imperial federal government to do this type of scheme? The American people have lost control of Congress and Congress has forgotten what power it actually been granted.

How can something that is naturally occurring in our atmosphere, humans EXHALE it, and has been there since before humans ever came to being, be considered pollution and a "threat" to the Earth? There is no credible scientific evidence that humans increasing CO2 has caused the Earth to warm. Not to mention that the Earth has actually COOLED in the past 8.5 years and wiped out all the warming of the 20th century. Antarctica has actually increased it's ice area since records have been kept.

Until the science is more proven and not based on computer models that have consistently failed to predict anything correctly, regulating and trying to control more of the private sector is counter productive to a healthy society. It is nothing more than a scheme to control more of our lives. This is pure fascism and is being promoted by both parties, mostly Democrat, though.

[BogusBasin]

You Maverick you. Wink wink. You betcha. Amen

[William Crow]

Excellent movie on the actual subject at hand..."The Lives of Others."

I notice that everywhere people comparing their personal "carbon footprint" to other individuals. The behavior of getting into others business while the government invades and takes over businesses and lives is the slight-of-hand social/governmental trick that is occurring during our time.

Wikipedia the term "fascism." Make your own decision.

[ClimateTF]

There is a third option--a revenue-neutral carbon tax. It would reduce emissions, incentivize green R&D and return the revenue to the people. It's a win for the environment and a win for the economy.

[Endbringer]

Spain implemented a cap and trade type system a couple decades ago. A new study found that for every new "green" job created, 2.2 regular jobs were lost. I don't know about you, but that does not seem to be a win for the economy.

[Aggie1295]

"If enacted and implemented, 20 years from now we'll look down the road and see this is as the most important piece of legislation in the history of the country," said Bumpers. "It has truly transformational potential." - The only thing transformational that might occur because of a carbon tax or cap and trade system is the transformation of the United States from a world economic power to a 3rd world country. This legislation has the ability to destroy our economy for decades.

"We can keep the costs to households to pennies a day," said panelist Fred Krupp, the president of Environmental Defense Fund. "We can limit the costs to very manageable levels if we do it right. I think the equitable thing to do is to have a transition." - This is a complete unadulterated lie. Enacting a carbon tax or cap and trade system will increase the cost of producing power, which in turn will increase the cost of everything thing else.

Every business, every company, every government agency, every human being in this country, or any other country on this planet for that matter, relies on some type of energy. Fossil fuels are simply the least expensive sources of energy that exist. Energy is all about getting the biggest bang for you buck. The cheaper it is to produce energy, the cheaper it costs and the cheaper everything else is. Do people seriously think that energy producers and business will see their costs rise exponentionally and they won't pass that on to their customers? Not a chance. Renewable energy sources all sound good in theory, but they produce too little energy at too high a cost and they cost too much to get the energy produced to where it needs to be. The only reason ethinal, solar power, wind power and others survive is because of government subsidies, a.k.a. our tax dollars. These forms of energy are unable to be economically feasible or compete with fossil fuels. Until those costs are competative, then renewables won't work, and artificially raising the cost of fossil fuels, which in essence is what is being proposed by these carbon taxes and cap and trade programs, won't do the trick. It just raises the cost on everything.

One other thing, manmade global warming or climate change is a con and a lie. I have news for you, the climate of this planet is changing because it is always changing. It has been changing constantly over hundreds, thousands, millions and billions of years and it will keep changing regardless of what we do or don't do. One day this planet will become an uninhabital rock, and there isn't a thing we can do about it. I find it laughable that we seem to believe that we are so powerful and important that we can change the climate with a hundred years of industrial activity. Give me a break. Just look at the effect of a good sized volcano, The geological activities of the Earth alone have a bigger effect, not to mention that normal cycles that lead to ice ages as well as warming periods. Manmade climate change is a lie supported by a scientific community trying to justify the importance of their own research (who is going to give them grants if their doomsday theories are wrong?). Obama, the liberal Democratcs in Congress and the environuts (many of whom would be happy to see us back in the Stone Age) wil destroy the fabric of our economy if they aren't stopped.

[grayboe]

It is not possible to add a carbon cap without adding cost to the individual consumer. Who do you think is going to pay for those carbon credits? The consumer will be taxed by higher prices for everything they buy. Remember companies do not pay taxes, consumers do! Companies get their tax money from us.

[open-mind]

I think the endless hysteria about man-made global warming is a giant scam. Just an excuse to manipulate and tax the public. 40 years ago, global cooling was the concern. Now warming is the concern, even though (as mentioned above) it seems to be getting cooler again. That's probably why they recently changed the term to "climate change". Vagueness is good.

The contribution of US man-made CO2 is nearly insignificant worldwide, but hey a few extra billion in tax revenue can't hurt, right? Water vapor contributes far more to global warming than CO2 does, so maybe we should tax people extra when it rains.

[blafouille]

Too litle too late...

[galeso]

Wow a tax that will hit US steelmakers and other heavy energy users and give the Chinese and other companies a pass. I bet the unions will love this bill.

The warming is accelerating much faster than the models predicted, so it is probably too late too save the earth, but we might buy a few more years.

[ClimateTF]

@Endbringer: Which is one in a long list of reasons that I support a revenue-neutral carbon tax as opposed to a cap and trade system...