Environment

Obama wants mandatory cap and trade system

by Amy Judd | February 25, 2009 at 10:33 am

546 views | 36 Recommendations | 7 comments

President Obama in his speech to Congress last night announced that he wants a mandatory cap on greenhouse emissions even though the country is going through a tough economic time right now. Obama did finally return to his energy campaigns yesterday that he talked about so passionately in his campaign last year, and he said that a cap and trade system would help US companies recover from the economic slump as it would give them a reason to produced alternative energy sources such as wind turbines and solar panels.

"To truly transform our economy, to protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy," Obama said in his address (pdf) to Congress. "So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America. That's what we need."

Obama said the government will invest $15 billion every year to develop these new energy technologies, as the government revenue from the allowances that companies would buy would fund the cap and trade system.
Obama acknowledged that it will not be easy, and that it will be an expensive project, but he said:

But this is America. We don't do what's easy. We do what's necessary to move this country forward."

He received a standing ovation for his climate change comments, however he did not talk about whether he wanted to combine the energy and climate change bills into one big package.
A climate change bill will soon be delivered to the President for him to sign.

It appears as if most are ready to get on board in Congress, however he will have a fight ahead of him to convince lawmakers whose states have a lot of heavy industry plants in them.

What is a Cap and Trade system?
It is a method used to control pollution by giving companies economic incentives to reduce their pollution output

Carbon trading is sometimes seen as a better approach than a direct carbon tax or direct regulation. By solely aiming at the cap it avoids the consequences and compromises that often accompany other methods. It can be cheaper, and politically preferable for existing industries because the initial allocation of allowances is often allocated with a grandfathering provision where rights are issued in proportion to historical emissions

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158

at 10:39 on February 25th, 2009

This will cost more money so it may not happen for a few years.

Sorry for the delay in commenting. I am in the process of moving. I will be back on regularly by 5 March.

158

Uwe Paschen

at 11:10 on February 25th, 2009

The wind as changed direction and all follow, still with out even thinking nor questioning. This wont help either since it will be based on US standards and will.

Alida Antonia Cornelius

at 11:53 on February 25th, 2009

I don't like the carbon tax idea.

They do something similar with "wetlands" in the USA and it does not stop the destroying of wetlands...it only allows large developers to "buy" wetlands which already exist, but keep the ones they "buy" from being destroyed. And they can also build new wetlands, but the new wetlands are only guaranteed for five years by the builders and can dry up.

The carbon tax reminds me of the wetlands conservation programs.

I am so against the carbon tax for that reason.

Albert Milliron

at 12:34 on February 25th, 2009

Thanks for this article. Obama made this clear about the Coal industry while on the campaign trail.

A. Tran

at 14:44 on February 25th, 2009

The positive end results of clean and renewable energy will far outweigh the initial investments/costs to develop new technologies. These companies need financial incentives to make fundamental changes.

Uwe Paschen

at 16:45 on February 25th, 2009

They do not need money nor incentives, they need strong laws and jail time if not following the law. You are insulting all those businesses that did the right thing over the past 2 to 4 decades, invested properly and paid their taxes and yet implemented great environmental technologies and incorporated those all the wile treating their employes fairly.

Sorry, now we reward the sinners and abuser? Well, not my sort of Government. Bush was bad and this is no better either now.

Barry ORegan

at 11:58 on February 28th, 2009

Well a nice idea in principle I suppose, let's hope Obama doesn't Go Cap in Hand to his Trading Partners when he implements it to the detriment of those trading partners and US unemployed