Cap and Trade Could Not Come Any Sooner

Cap and Trade will be panacea which solves America’s two biggest problems simultaneously: Global warming and the budget deficit.

While detractors say that cap-and-trade is reminiscent of a centrally-controlled socialist, or more accurately “soviet” (meaning “committee”) style economy, I believe that cap-and-trade could enhance capatalism by creating new markets, in this case a market for trading emissions. For an example of a live, running emissions market, see the following website:

Carbon Trading Market

What better way to spur investment in new renewable fuel plants, into R&D to develop more efficient cars, cleaner sources of electricity (Yes! Nuclear is a green method of generating electricity)?

Then, some of our personal tax burden can be lifted. Instead of repaying the stimulus spending debt through our income taxes, it can be paid to the government by pollution-spewing industries. By hurting and diminishing the industries which pollute the environment, another burden will be lifted from our shoulders: Rising health costs due to pollution-causing asthma, heart and lung disease, cancer, lead and mercury poisoning, and other maladies triggered by industrial pollution.

The argument that we will have to pay more for electricity and transportation will be outweighed by the savings in healthcare and the immeasurable improvements in health.

To those who complain that Cap-and-Trade is a hidden tax, I counter that natural resources like fresh air and water were never meant to be stolen by industry for free, polluted, and then returned to the people. Cap-and-Trade will be a fair way of determining a price for these precious resources owned commonly by all people, albeit, possibly a still too cheap price to pay for the very things that sustain our lives and health.

It all comes down to your sense of values. Which is more important: The health of our children, or the profit and loss statement of Exxon?

Besides, Exxon’s loss might be some soybean farmer’s gain.