What is Cap and Trade?

There has been a lot of internet chatter over this weekend about Cap and Trade. Friday night the House of Representatives voted 219-212 in favor of Cap and Trade legislation. What is Cap and Trade? What did they vote to do? Why was there such a rush to pass this legislation that they could not even wait for it to be read and understood before voting? What's next?

Well, starting with the legislation, the only accurate description of the bill I've found comes from our congressman, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH-18): "Hey, people deserve to know what's in this pile of s--t." Okay, Boehner assessment may be accurate, but I'll admit it is not a very informative description.

So, what is Cap and Trade supposed to be? The general idea is some naive people have bought into the ridiculous idea of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) and think we need to take drastic action to save the planet. With that in mind, proponents of the theory of AGW want to Cap greenhouse emissions and then there will be trading of allowances to exceed the Cap. In other words, companies that generate emissions (that is any company that creates stuff) will be charged a fee. Call the fee whatever you want, but bottom line is it is a massive tax on productivity. The obvious impact will be felt by consumers of the power companies. Basically, since the cost of these fees will be passed on to consumers, this is a massive tax on every American. Amazingly, there are people who actually believed the snake oil salesman from Chicago when he said no one making less than $250,000 will see a tax increase. Fools!

The question concerning the rush to pass this legislation is the easiest to answer. Whenever Congress says they need to rush something through without debate and without even reading the legislation then you know congressional "leadership" realize the proposed legislation would not survive full examination. Consider the pork laden "stimulus" bill from a few months ago.

What's next? The bill goes to the senate for consideration and if it passes the senate then to the president for signature or veto. There is no doubt that the current president is a an adherent of the religion of global warming so he will sign the bill if it makes it to his desk. So, if we are concerned about our countries future we need to attempt to influence enough senators to vote against Cap and Trade. Also, since even if this bill dies in the senate we will see more attempts to push this in the future we should continue to pressure members of the House of Representatives. I know my congressman (Boehner) isn't an idiot. How about your congressman? Give your congressman a call. Their staffs keep track of public sentiment on contentious issues and fear of losing votes can influence their position.