On Cap & Trade

The Cap and Trade legislation, also known as American Clean Energy and Security Act H.R. 2454, is a total non-starter. It’s DOA. All work that Congress has done for this bill up to this point should be scrapped immediately.

If, perchance, it takes a little while for our power to be recognized and our voice to be heard, then we will need to completely repeal any Cap and Trade legislation.

Why take such an absolute position? Consider these scenarios…

Scenario 1: It’s early evening and Tom and Linda are just getting ready to sit down to the dinner table with their two teenage kids. This is certainly a rare event since most of the time everyone in the family is off on different directions. Just as the family gets started with dinner, the doorbell rings and a good looking couple, decently dressed, ask to talk to Tom briefly about an urgent matter. As it turns out, the two aren’t actually a couple; rather, they’re volunteers helping a community cancer hospital with a charity drive. They explain that the hospital is looking to get involved in some serious new projects in order to improve the services that it offers its patients. These two people volunteered to help the hospital collect funds for the projects. Tom politely listens to their pitch and after they’re done, Tom invites them to sit down so that he can discuss their request with Linda. Tom leaves his guests for a short time and then returns with $100 check for the hospital’s drive. As he gives them the check, he tells them about some family experiences with cancer and that he knows that the hospital does very good work. He explains that he wishes that he could give more, but the family budget is pretty stretched out.

Scenario 2: It’s early evening and Barry and Jane are just getting ready to sit down to the dinner table with their two teenage kids. This is certainly a rare event since most of the time everyone in the family is off on different directions. Just as the family gets started with dinner, the doorbell rings and two official looking people, a man and a woman, ask to talk to Barry about an urgent matter. The man starts, “We need to talk about the American Clean Energy and Security Act.” Barry responds, “You mean Cap and Trade.” “Yes that’s right; you need sign this form authorizing us to collect $175/year from you.” Barry replies rather startled, “Whoa. Let me get my wife in here.” Barry gives Jane a quick rundown of what’s going on; then, Jane tells the pair, “I heard that the actual cost of this will be much more. And, by the way, what makes you think that we are interested anyway.” The woman responds coolly, “The ice caps are melting and polar bears are dying.” Barry and Jane jump out of their seats simultaneously, “Soooo! We’re sure that this is important, but we have other priorities.” Undeterred, the woman retorts, “But there is the issue of increased probability and intensity of droughts and heat waves.” Barry and Jane again in unison exclaim, “Oh really. Where do you get this stuff?” The man started mumbling something about scientists having concluded that global warming is a major concern. Our staunch couple would have none of this and told the pair “Well, we know a thing or two about science, don’t we? You’d best leave.”

The first scenario is replayed millions of time all over our country. Our country, the United States of America is populated by many different peoples, from different walks of life and different cultural backgrounds. However, we are all united because we are moral; we are righteous; we care for one and other, even for people that are very different from ourselves; we protect our environment and our surroundings; we are not stupid, though – we know what’s important and what’s not. Yes, Americans are the most charitable people on the face of the earth. So, multitudes of causes are supported by generous and thoughtful Americans. And, yes we consider critically which causes and which projects are worthy of our attention and our money.

Americans have always paid special attention to environmental concerns, but we use a level headed approach here. Overall, we are pretty astute when it comes to the protection of our environment; we critically evaluate environmental programs by weighing cost vs. benefit, or, better yet, cost vs. concern. I’m willing to bet that 80% of voters would react as our couple did in scenario 2. Nonetheless, people really do worry about the environment. That’s why I’m proposing that we set aside $5 Million a year over the next 10 years to support further research into the global environment.