Issue Position: Climate Change/Cap and Trade

Issue Position

You might remember what this section would have been called a few years ago: "Global Warming." Problem with that was, there is not global warming. Temperatures are fluctuating up and down in natural cycles now just as they have for centuries. Let's not fix what's not broke by enacting new regulations, like the "Cap and Trade"

Cap and Trade or Scrap and Save?

God created the earth and charged mankind with the planet's stewardship, a responsibility not to be taken lightly. With so much of our daily life and existence transported, heated, cooled and lit by non-renewable fuel, being good stewards has never been more important. But there is a point at which environmental concern can skew the price of a proposed "saving" action to be more costly than any perceived benefit. This upside-down business model is embodied by "Cap and Trade" legislation in Congress.

The stated philosophical intent behind the creaky Cap and Trade plan is to reduce carbon emissions. As written by those now in power in Washington, the plan would impose a mandatory "cap" on emissions for the various industries, and then require businesses in these industries to purchase "permits" for energy use. To ensure they remain in emissions compliance, businesses would buy these permits and subsequently sell any surplus--hence the phrase "cap and trade." Under the ill-advised plan, the number of available energy use permits would gradually drop every year until what is considered a "safe" level of emissions is reached.

As worthy as the philosophy behind the plan is (to be kind), the tenets driving the plan are horribly misaligned (to be accurate) with the objective. Were it to be put in place as now written, the legislation would stymie the ability of American businesses to grow--let alone survive. It would ultimately be the consumer--as always--left to pick up the tab of the emissions credits through higher utility bills and even more pain at the pump.

Some experts predict the cost of electricity could nearly double under cap and trade restrictions as co-op, public and investor-owned utilities find themselves forced to move added costs to ratepayers. The Heritage Foundation Center for Data Analysis reports this bill may result in as many as 2.5 million jobs lost. Even analysts at the EPA agree that enacting this plan would result in job losses!

To top things off, the Cap and Trade plan includes establishing yet another federal bureaucracy to oversee (i.e. regulate) the buying, selling and trading of these permits.

Since other nations wouldn't be shackled by this sham of a plan, America's competitive disadvantage would only be exacerbated by Cap and Trade. The sound America would hear would be of once-vital-now-crippled U.S. manufacturers packing up and moving to other industrialized nations. And remember, they would be packing up jobs along with equipment!

Aside from the serious business and economic considerations of Cap and Trade is the fact that the whole plan is designed to slay a problem that simply doesn't exist. Remember the "global warming" crisis? How could we forget? The term was drilled into our heads for over ten years….until about a year ago, when global warming itself melted into what's now called "climate change." This new label is a lot more accurate in describing the earth's changes as indeed the planet has been warming and cooling in periodic cycles since God first set it spinning in the universe. To be sure, steps should be, and have been, taken to reduce the excessive release of pollutants into the air we breathe. But let's not blame tailpipes and factories for ramping up temperatures around the globe. As even the environmentalists have come to concede, there are just as many parts of the world experiencing cooler than average temperatures today as there are places warmer than usual.

So, now that all of sound mind and reason know and agree that global warming is a phantom condition akin to unicorns, what do we do with a plan being cooked up in Washington designed to fix a problem that doesn't exist? What's to be done with the Cap and Trade bill?
"Scrap and save." As in scrap it and save us.

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