Posted by
BLOGASSAULT on Tuesday, August 18, 2009 11:30:42 AM
The Washington Post put up an
editorial today on how the health care reform debat is ruining the cap and trade deal. So the Post has decided that the administration should drop the cap and trade part of the bill and instead institute a carbon tax.
Great idea...put another tax on the back of the general public while the economy is still trying to recover. They even mention that at the beginning of the article: Many are worried about how a new system will be paid for in an economy that has unraveled...
What is wrong with their thinking is that they believe falsly that if they tax the pollutors of carbon they will not pass that on to the customer. It is a fantasy that those on the left believe. Business does not pay tax...period. It will always be passed on through higher prices.
They also mention the fact that the Obama Admisnistration has banked totally on cap and trade:
Dropping cap-and-trade from the Senate bill is considered a non-starter by Mr. Reid and environmental advocates for two reasons. First, a long-stated goal of congressional leaders and the president himself is to have emissions-limiting legislation passed and signed into law in time for international climate talks in Copenhagen in December. Second, there is no Plan B. The leadership has put all of its eggs in the cap-and-trade basket.
Actually, there is a third part as well. There are alot of people in power who stand to make a lot of money dealing in cap and trade credits. Al Gore himself was questioned on that exact question in this
FrontPageMag.com article.
Moreover, Gore hopes to make further big profits by creating financial vehicles that ostensibly promote investment in renewable energy sources – not that he would want anyone to know that.
On April 24, Gore testified before the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee about pending cap-and-trade legislation. Cap-and-trade policies, which Gore supports, enable businesses to purchase credits for exceeding government-mandated limits on carbon-dioxide emissions, thereby avoiding fines.
During the hearings, Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn asked Gore about his involvement with Kleiner Perkins, an environmental venture-capital group that Gore joined as a partner in 2007. Kleiner Perkins, Blackburn said, “invested about a billion dollars in 40 companies that are going to benefit from cap-and-trade legislation that we are discussing here today.
“Is that something that you are personally going to benefit from?” Blackburn asked.
Gore replied: “The transition to a green economy is good for our economy and good for all of us, and I have invested in it but every penny that I have made I have put right into a nonprofit, the Alliance for Climate Protection, to spread awareness of why we have to take on this challenge.”
Regardless, cap and trade will be money making proposition for many environmentalists and business men all over the country. So, maybe a carbon tax is better. Either way, the american middle class will pay, and someone will get rich because of it.