Crescent-News.com - Todd Helberg - Cap and trade a huge issue for Americans

Todd Helberg cnedit@crescent-news.com

Chances are, unless you are a political news junky, you’ve not heard a lot about Washington’s rush toward a cap and trade program that, if passed, will continue the march toward turning the U.S. into a tax-happy, regulation-crazed country all too characteristic of western Europe.
On Friday the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly approved a massive 1,500-page bill, 219-212, that no legislator can probably say with honesty that he or she has read. Now it goes to the Senate, where one hopes, it will die a welcome death.
The stampede to cap and trade is tethered to the Obama administration’s conviction that green, environmentally friendly jobs will replace those centered on fossil fuels. In this regard, he says, Americans should not be afraid of the future.
Well, maybe they should.
What cap and trade could do, by making fossil fuels more expensive to use, is force Americans to adopt the green mentality, and more importantly, compel the economy to adapt accordingly. The administration’s apparent hope is that the transformation will pay off in the long run.
The question for us Americans who will pay more for electricity and other energy is whether this gamble is worth the trouble. Many would say it’s not, and evidence would suggest as much.
As with many things political, not much thinking is apparently going into the unintended consequences. Companies subject to cap and trade will naturally pass their costs onto the consumer. The cost of this is uncertain, but even supporters admit Americans will be paying more for vital energy supplies. So much for that “middle class” tax cut.
Perhaps, more importantly, if green jobs are created, supplanting existing ones related to fossil fuels, what would be the rate of exchange?
We don’t know the answer, but Spain has an idea. A recent study there found that each green job causes the loss of 2.2 other ones in some way.
Spain, which has embraced green technology, has 18 percent unemployment. That is not comforting when weighing Obama’s admonishment about the future.
Many critics of cap and trade note that everyone is for a clean environment, just not the cost which will come with it. While they are correct about the cost, they should remind Americans that this nation’s environmental resume over the past few decades is impressive. So, what we are really talking about is environmental overkill.
With a high standard of living in this country comes a high regard for the environment. And, with the creation of EPA in 1970, much has been done to protect Mother Nature. If you don’t believe that, compare the environment in the United States to the overt instances of environmental harm that are common in countries which have not achieved our standard of living.
Which raises an issue that makes cap and trade pointless: Countries like India and China are not going to jeopardize their considerable economic growth in recent years by limiting greenhouse gas emissions. While the Obama administration and like-minded western European nations continue touting the latest green fads, the Chinese and Indians will continue to use more and more fossil fuels and pollute with impunity. Which means that any U.S. greenhouse gas reductions — if cap and trade actually brings that about — will represent a drop in the ocean.
The underpinnings for all this of course is the fear of global warming. However, for those willing to do a minimum of research it’s apparent that climate change has been occurring in many ways for eons without human assistance. How this can be so willingly ignored by so many at a time like this is truly amazing.

(Todd Helberg is city editor and editorial page editor of The Crescent-News.)