So You Think the Cap and Trade Bill Will Save the World

I like nature and long walks in the woods. I like looking at the vastness of the ocean and rivers without beer bottles and tires floating around in them. That said, I have not bought into the premise of man-made global warming, but that does not mean I am the Anti-Environmentalist. It just means I disagree.

If you sincerely believe in global warming, you have the right to use the democratic process to have your concerns translated into law. But before you begin defending this recent cap and trade bill to the death, I ask you to take a step back and really ask yourself if the contents of this piece of legislation are really going to solve the problem of carbon emissions.

Clive Crook of the Financial Times is a guy who shares your views about reducing carbon emissions, but who nevertheless is forced to admit that this bill will do little of what it is supposed to do. Instead, as he put its, it will form "a vastly complicated apparatus, a playground for special interests and rent-seekers, a minefield of unintended consequences--and the bottom line for all that is business as usual."

So, in the end, the cap and trade bill will:

• increase corruption,
  
• make it easier for certain rich people to get richer,
• make it harder for everyday people to survive with an increased cost of living,
• bring in more revenue for the government (at least they think it will),
  
• and increase the meddling of the federal government in your personal life.

What the bill won't do:

• what it is supposed to do, which is reduce carbon emissions and prevent global warming.

Methinks this is a "green" bill in that it is all about the money and nothing at all about the environment. Oh yeah, it's also about power.