Cap and Tax

A few weeks ago, the United States House of Representatives barely passed H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, by a mere 7 votes (Interestingly enough, only eight republicans voted for it. Their contact information is provided below). This bill introduces a cap and trade program where the federal government establishes an emissions cap along with credits to the various industries which can be sold to one another. Under such a program, if company "A" needs more credits, and company "B" has more than enough, then B can sell some of its credits to A. Essentially, companies will have to pay for the ability to emit more greenhouse gases over the allowed "cap". The the goal is to reduce nation-wide greenhouse gas emmisions 17% by 2020.

Now my loyal readers (all 4 of you), as a chemist, I have read a good deal of literature on both global warming (GW) and alternative energy (particularly biodiesel). I am by no means an expert in those fields, but I am well read to the point that I can form a solid opinion on the subject. For all of you out there, it is important to understand two essential points:

1. The questions "Is climate change (CC) occuring?" and "Is it human-caused (anthropogenic)?" are scientific questions. They should be, and are, being investigated by scientists across various disciplines. There is no "scientific consensus" (as if scientific consensus equaled truth), and as such the results of such investigations have a minimal role in determining public policy.

2. The only questions that are relevent to making public policy are: "How much will it cost?" and "How much could it help?" A cost benefit analysis is the only pertinant investigation that should be done when making a policy with respect to climate change, and it is the only investigation that is being given little to no weight.

In every single political debate I hear on the issue of GW and CC, the democrats line up and say; "Its happening!" and the republicans line up and say "No it isn't!". As I said before, we don't really know the answer, and if we act, then we must take the cost into serious consideration. If the policy change cripples American industry, thus sending our economy into a free fall and putting us into a precarious situation with other less amiable countries like China and Russia, all for a 0.01% reduction in CO2 which may or may not be causing CC, I am inclined to think that the cost is not worth the benefit. But thats just me.

So now the question is what is the cost benefit analysis for the Cap and Tax act just passed by our esteemed House of Representatives? First, lets pretend that you're a business owner and you are informed that you have to spend millions of dollars to modify your production facilities in order to come under the cap or purchase additional "credits". Now, suppose you have been considering moving production overseas, but up until now, it wasn't cost efficient to do so. What do you do? We can say all we want about the evil businessmen who move jobs overseas, but lets be honest, like everyone else these guys are trying to make a buck, and they can either make it here or anywhere else. If we want jobs, and wealth, and growth, then we should be doing what we can to encourage businesses to come here, not run away screaming. This cap and trade act will do exactly that. Businesses will run, not walk, to the nearest foriegn power that won't care what their emission level is. Which leads us to the question about the benefit. Obama says 17% over 10 years. How important is that 17% going to be if China and South America increase their emmisions because of the influx of production and manufacturing facilities? Isn't that nice. The US managed a 17% reduction, but the rest of the globe increased their emissions by 25%. But hey, at least we drove businesses out of the country, expanded the power of government, destroyed millions of jobs, deepened the recession, and helped China become the economic leader of the world. I mean, we have to do something right?

But lets make this a little more personal. Right now the official unemployment rate is racing towards 10%. In some parts of the country, it is approaching 20%. The costs of basic necessities like food are increasing at a time when the income of the average American family is shrinking. This cap and tax program will only serve to force the providers to pass their increased cost onto you. That means the prices for manufactured goods, food, electricity, etc. are going to go even higher. Change we can believe in right? If this bill passes, not only will your job move overseas, but you will have to pay more for those basic necessities.

The house passed this 1500 page bill after adding an additional 300 pages hours before it was voted on. Nobody read it! Moreover, the public response to this bill was overwhelmingly negative. The apes in congress are ignoring the wishes of their constituents, and voting for bills that they haven't read! This is the government we voted for people! The only way to prevent this from going all the way is for everyone to call or write their senator and inform them that if they vote yes on this bill, come 2010, you will be shopping for a new senator. I am serious people. The goobers in washington think they can get away with this, because they are counting on the apathy of the public. Don't make them right! Contact your senator today!

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

For those of you who want to thank the republican representatives who felt that this was a good idea...hear is their contact information.

Bono Mack (CA) 202-225-5330
Castle (DE) 202-225-4165
Kirk (IL) 202-225-4835
Lance (NJ) 202-225-5361
Lobiondo (NJ) 202-225-6572
McHugh (NY) 202-225-4611
Reichart (WA) 202-225-7761
Chris Smith (NJ) 202-225-3765