While the title for the article pretty much says it all, “Dems Cool On Climate Change As Economic Pressures Escalate,” there are two points in the article I found particularly interesting:
First, this statement from the author,
Cap-and-trade would require businesses to buy permits to release carbon emission as a way of reducing CO2 emissions overall. For states that use a lot of coal-fired electricity, that could mean new expenses for business and new costs for consumers.
It could mean increased costs for consumers? It absolutely will mean higher costs for everyone paying an electric bill and this will permeate through the market and mean increased costs for goods and services too. You cannot expect costs to increase for businesses and industries and not expect it to trickle down to the consumer. Consider the increased costs we experienced last year because of significantly increased gasoline prices. From airplane tickets to delivery fees, almost everything seemed more expensive.
Finally, in a brief moment of honesty, we see this potential cap-and-trade legislation for what it is, a way to levy another tax on the American people, without actually calling it a tax. I guess we have to pay for the trillion dollar stimulus package somehow.
One reason for the change, Pelosi said, was that the government needed the money it could get from the auctioning off of the emissions permits under a cap-and-trade program.
“I believe we have to because we see that as a source of revenue,” the Chronicle reported her saying.
That depends on how the cap-and-trade program is designed. The more expensive the permits, the more revenue they will bring in, but that will also mean higher costs for business and higher energy prices for consumers.
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