Crap and Trade

Janschwalde Power Station, Wiki Commons

By Tony Vega

Update: H. R. 2454 can be found here , thanks Independent Voice

With the birth of an Obamanation the second amendment becomes an even more attractive target, health care is close to being socialized and Cap & Trade is a euphemism for oppressive taxation.

A quick look at the numbers for this Cap & Trade fiasco will reveal that your average American will get hosed at the gas pump, may want to read their electric bill with the lights out and watch their jobs sail away to overseas corporations. Oh, let's not forget about the polar bears or the planet, no help there either.

There are many credible organizations, such as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Brookings Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) and even the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that detail the cost and ineffectiveness of Cap & Trade. I implore the folks to turn the pages for themselves and asses by fact.

How about our European neighbors, how has Cap & Trade been working for them?

According to an investigative report by the London Bureau of BusinessWeek, Europe's CO2 output actually rose 1.1%. An in depth analysis published in the Washington Post delves into Europe's issues with Cap & Trade. Let's take a look:

Business

Kollo Holding's factory in the Netherlands is a silicon carbide maker that calls itself the greenest such plant in the world, but now can't afford to run full-time. Europe's program has driven electricity prices so high that the facility routinely shuts down for part of the day to save money on power.

Although demand for its products is strong, the plant has laid off 40 of its 130 employees and trimmed production. Two customers have turned to cheaper imports from China, which is not covered by Europe's costly regulations.

French cement workers may lose jobs to Morocco, which doesn't have to meet the European guidelines. Four-hundred cement workers protested a license for a rival company that plans to take advantage of Europe's system for controlling greenhouse gases by circumventing it. The rival wants to import material from Morocco, where factories don't have to pay to emit carbon gas.

Residents

German homeowners pay 25 percent more for electricity, even as their utility companies earn record profits.

[Landlords will pass increased heating and electric costs to tenants. Workers across the continent face the prospect of losing their jobs to foreign facilities that aren't required to follow Cap & Trade standards. When the price of electricity, gas, and operating costs rise everyone will feel the hit, from heating your homes, driving to work, or paying for transportation to get to work and/or play.]

Environment

[In addition to Europe's CO2 output rising by 1.1%] Europe's cap-and-trade system has done little to reduce output at such places as the Janschwalde coal plant, [located near the village of Janschwalde in Brandenburg on the German-Polish border] Europe's third-biggest carbon dioxide emitter. Each year, it spews more than 25 million tons of carbon dioxide; half of its output can power all of Berlin.

Remember that cement plant in Dannes, France and the prospect of them losing their jobs to a Moroccan plant?

The Moroccan plant may produce even more carbon dioxide than the one in Dannes. "This is going the wrong way from an environmental point of view," Vincent Bichet, Director General, Dannes.

Back in the U.S., Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi and other Obama elites are pushing for similar Crap & Trade policies. Rest assured it will be like chum to the sharks, the lobbyists and enviro-arsonists are already circling.

It is my firm belief that we should all be good shepherds of the earth. The current Cap & Trade system will do nothing for the planet and is only green in the sense that it will remove the green from your wallet and plant it into the accounts of the fat-cats.