by Arthur75 » Sat 04 Jul 2009, 05:59:50
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My understanding is that it's a cap on carbon emissions. If a business goes over their cap, they have to buy carbon credits from the market (and you BETCHA goldman sachs and all the other evil banksters will be making a fortune on that carbon credit market). In theory, businesses that go green and use less than their allotment of carbon credits will be rewarded, since they can sell their unused credits into the carbon market (and then the speculating banksters add their profit in).
So the idea here is to become carbon neutral, with financial incentives in place for people to not pollute, and use less polluting energy (e.g. electricity rates will go up, causing the consumer to conserve more energy).
That's my understanding of it.. I may be wrong about the specific workings of this bill though. From what I understand, this cap n' trade bill is not international though.. the big cap n' trade scheme is the Kyoto protocol, where first world polluters buy carbon credits from third worlders.
The whole thing is a big scam though, nothing but a brand new commodity bubble for the banksters to get rich off. It only has support because it's appealing to two powerful groups -- environmentalists worried about all the melting ice, and the BANSKTERS who are literally salivating over the mad profits they'll rake in. So it's win-win for both sides of the political spectrum; democrats get to claim they've saved the Earth, and Republicans get to fill their pockets with cash from manipulating the new carbon credit market.
Thanks, and for sure it is totally ridiculous (as the cap n trade scheme from Kyoto btw), and the corresponding market didn't really work anyway.
Plus I don't understand who is going to define the cap of a given company (higly dependant on activity type, etc)
Really all this doesn't make sense, what would make sense on the other hand is :
- measuring carbon emmissions and agreeing on targets
- a "carbon tax" or "fossile tax" as proposed by James Hansen :
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') rising carbon price is essential to "decarbonize" the economy, i.e., to move the nation toward the era beyond fossil fuels. The most effective way to achieve this is a carbon tax (on oil, gas, and coal) at the well-head or port of entry. The tax will then appropriately affect all products and activities that use fossil fuels. The public's near-term, mid-term, and long-term lifestyle choices will be affected by knowledge that the carbon tax rate will be rising.
The public will support the tax if it is returned to them, equal shares on a per capita basis (half shares for children up to a maximum of two child-shares per family), deposited monthly in bank accounts. No large bureaucracy is needed.
A person reducing his carbon footprint more than average makes money. A person with large cars and a big house will pay a tax much higher than the dividend. Not one cent goes to Washington. No lobbyists will be supported.
Unlike cap-and-trade, no millionaires would be made at the expense of the public.The tax will spur innovation as entrepreneurs compete to develop and market low-carbon and no-carbon energies and products. The dividend puts money in the pockets of consumers, stimulating the economy, and providing the public a means to purchase the products.