This article says nothing about the existing real technology to convert CO2 emissions into oxygen by use of green algae as implemented by Greenfuel Technologies (www.greenfuelonline.com). This company has an ever-growing nimber of sites around the USA where CO2 emissions are being eliminated. There is too much gloom and doom thinking by journalists, politicians and lawyers who imagine that technology stands still and never innovates anything new. These people need to get their heads out of the sand or wherever else the sun doesn't shine and find out what progress has been made and what can be done in the near future.
SPONSORED BY:
- 1
- 2
Let’s Just Call It ‘Cap and Tax’
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
SPONSORED BY
As mandated emissions cuts go deeper, the danger of disruptions would mount. Population increases alone raise energy demand. From 2006 to 2030, the population will grow by 22 percent (to 366 million), the number of housing units by 25 percent (to 141 million) and the amount of commercial business space by 35 percent (to 101 billion square feet), projects the Energy Information Administration. The idea that higher fuel prices will be offset mostly by lower consumption is optimistic. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a 15 percent cut in emissions from a base year would raise annual average household energy costs by almost $1,300 (in 2006 "constant" dollars), or roughly 3 percent of income for the bottom four fifths of the population.
That's how cap-and-trade would tax most Americans. As allowances become scarcer, their price would rise, and the extra cost would be passed along to customers. For the government, issuing the scarce emissions allowances would vastly expand its power. The government could sell the allowances and spend the proceeds, or it could give them away, providing a windfall to recipients. The Senate proposal does both, to the tune of about $1 trillion from 2012 to 2018. Beneficiaries would include farmers, Indian tribes, new technology companies, utilities, states and mass-transit systems. Call this "environmental pork," and it would just be a start. The program's potential to confer subsidies and preferential treatment would stimulate a lobbying frenzy. Think of today's farm programs—and multiply by 10.
Unless we find cost-effective ways of reducing the role of fossil fuels, a cap-and-trade system would ultimately break down. It wouldn't permit satisfactory economic growth. Nor would it work internationally. Developing countries, the largest source of new emissions, won't abandon fossil fuels unless there are competitive alternatives. If we're going to use price to try to stimulate those new technologies, let's at least do it honestly. Most economists think that a straightforward tax on carbon would have the same incentive effects for alternative fuels and conservation as cap-and-trade without the rigidities and uncertainties of emission limits. A tax is more visible, understandable and democratic. If environmental groups still prefer an allowance system, let's call it by its proper name: "cap and tax."
© 2008
- 1
- 2
Presented By
My Take
Each Newsweek reader is different—and now your Newsweek can be, too. Use this page to create a experience that's personalized for you and your interests. My Take: it makes Newsweek whatever you want it to be.
Discuss