Will Cap-and-Trade Cost You $2 Trillion?

Mike S, you say that rising costs of coal and gas will make green energy seem more affordable, but you don't realize that the bottom line there is that green energy is more expensive! That is exactly why we don't use green energy...its such a high cost! It's time we drilled for more oil in ANWR and offshore for our nation, and keep the oil in our nation and not export it.

James F of MN 8:31PM March 23, 2009

The Obama Carbon Cap and Trade plan has nothing to do with protecting the environment. It is a new tax that will be passed on to the consumer and create un-employment. Obama believes that if we think we're helping the environment by paying the tax, we will happily pay it; however, unless he is using the money to plant trees and build facilites to remove carbon from the air, it is just another tax. A tax that is likely to result in stagflation of the U.S. economy.

All carbon cap and trade in the U.S. is going to do is send yet more manufacturing overseas where these laws don't apply, and it will increase global carbon emmissions. American manufacturing, even at its worst, polutes far less than its Chinese, Mexican, or Indian counterparts, yet many American facilites will be forced to close because they will be unable to meet the new polution standards and remain competitive. This will force them to move their manufacturing overseas, to contries who have no environmental law what-so-ever; thus, global carbon emissions will rise as a result of carbon cap and trade, not fall.

Alfred Taylor of FL 3:31AM March 19, 2009

Before people get too upset, take a look at Cap and Dividend (www.capanddividend.org). Polluters buy permits, and the revenues are returned to consumers. It's the simplest way to protect households and reduce emissions. We need a carbon price, those emissions are expensive, and the price of coal needs to go up to make renewables and other technologies cost-effective.

Mike S. of CA 12:57PM March 18, 2009