Posted by
BLOGASSAULT on Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:43:25 AM
Unfortunately, these actions do not "keep what we got" but rather pour fuel on the fire, as we citizens of the region are each losing $20,000 a year in local environmental value due to increasing global warming. Sitting on our hands guarantees that "we lose what we got," including our tourist industry, national parks, drinking water, hydropower, forests, beaches, salmon, ski industry and world-leading outdoor recreation industry.
What would it cost us citizens of Washington to start cap-and-trade now with a 1 percent reduction in CO2 emissions? Fifty cents each.
The Washington state legislature
scrapped a plan to impose and cap and trade program due to the downturn in the economy.
Both the state House and Senate have balked at adopting the so-called "cap-and-trade" system that would have forced industries to cut greenhouse-gas emissions to fall below a cap or buy extra permits in something resembling a stock market.
While a climate-change bill passed in the Senate and is headed for the House, it bears little resemblance to the comprehensive legislation Gregoire unveiled at a January news conference.
When it comes to climate change, "absent the governor pulling a rabbit out of the hat, cap-and-trade is dead as a doornail," Traisman said.
It's probably a good thing. Even with all the problems his administration has had thus far, it has not stopped his aggresive governmental agenda which includes
a nation wide cap and trade system.
If we have learned anything so far from the Obama team it's the fact that Chicago style politics weilded in the White House are no different then those in Chicago. Power and money are the goals, and poiticians along with their peeps are the winnners. So who wins the power and money in the cap and trade business? We will probably soon find out. One thing for sure, it won't be the consumer.