Will Cap and Trade Wreck the Economy?
posted by: GinaMarie Cheeseman 36 days ago
A recently released Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report looked at the economic effects of legislation to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The report concluded that the cap-and-trade provisions of the House bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, would reduce the gross domestic product (GDP) by only one-fourth percent to three-fourths percent by 2020, and between one percent and three and one-half percent by 2050. The CBO projects that inflation-adjusted GDP will be two and a half times greater in 2050 than today.
The models the CBO reviewed showed that the long-term cost to households would be less than the changes in GDP. However, the cost of natural changes “that are likely to result from climate change…will affect agriculture, forestry, and fishing; the demand for energy; and the nation’s infrastructure.”
“Reducing the risk of climate change would come at some cost to the economy,” CBO director Douglas Elmendorf said at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “Over the next few decades the economic losses from policies to avert climate change would exceed the economic gains in terms of climate change.” However, considering what the CBO projects about inflation-adjusted GDP growth, “those changes will be comparatively modest.”
Elmendorf also said the House bill would have little impact on Americans standard of living. Purchasing power, according to CBO projections, will drop 0.1 percent in 2010 and 0.8 percent in 2050, which averages out to $455 a year.
The cost of doing nothing will be greater
A report by the Economics for Equity and the Environment Network about the economics of achieving 350 parts per minute (ppm), now recommended by scientists, said, “As greenhouse gas emissions grow, it is the cost of doing nothing that is becoming unbearable, not the cost of taking action.”
Describing climate change s “a remote but dangerous threat to our way of life,” the report pointed out that military spending is greater than 2.5 percent of GDP in 68 countries, and over four percent of GDP in both the U.S. and China.
Read more: global warming
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I see cap. I think corporations cannot be honest enough with trade to allow it to have enough effect on climate warming. It is sure to be too late when this becomes obvious.
Climate change results from the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Nobody has found a way to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere except slowly allowing oceans to acidify to scrub the atmosphere.
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we should seek to move to a renewable economy that is sustainable. a sustainable world wide population of three billion. We need a one child policy globally ,too lower consumption
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Here is an idea. All those for cap and trade should go out right now and buy a solar panel roof, an electric car and all electric appliances. Don't worry about it costing you $50k since you will get all that money back over the next 20 years. This way you don't have to screw everyone else over your stupidity and lack of morality.
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Cap-and-trade is at best a temporary incentive and at worst a license to pollute as long as you've got money to support "mitigation measures" elsewhere. It is not, and I think it was never meant to be, part of the ultimate solution to global warming.
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So what this report says is that we are not capable of earning a living with out destroying our environment? That says a lot about the infrastructure of our economy.
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I am all for the cap but not the trade. These companies who pollute and produce green house gases should be responsible for their actions (one of the problems with our society no responsibility) they caused a problem they should be responsible not paying someone else so they can pollute more. We need to put money time and research into renewable clean energy, not continue with the way things have been.
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The Republican policies have already wrecked the American economy. The question should be, will global climate change wreck our entire world, the economy included?
The answer is yes, if we do nothing to stop it.
Even moderate conservatives agree that cap and trade makes sense until we can ramp up alternative and renewable energy sources in the US.
Germany gets 17% of it's energy from renewable sources. We can too. Waiting is not an option.
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Steve is absolutely correct. The world was overpopulated in 1925 when there was just over 1B people on earth. It has increased 7 fold since that time. Nearly all the ills we suffer arise from over population.
David
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Humanity can have as many conferences as it likes..
Legislation, reports etc.. ALL a total waste of time and focusing everytime on the wrong issue.
It is Humankind that is out of control and until we can change our mindset about population our planet will continue to die..
Here is a point in case .............
25 years ago we were ALL watching an Ethiopian famine of biblical proportions ( aggravated by a local war) that was devastating that part of the African continent. The death toll was horrendous. Ethiopia THEN had a population of 40 million.. Today, the Ethiopian Government has asked for International food aid because a prolonged draught has destroyed their crops.
The world should immediately react to this call.. NO ONE in this day and age should go hungry.. BUT.. TODAY the Ethiopian population stands at 80 MILLION .. I used Ethiopia as an example.. The human population is totally out of control.. Wether we use a plastic bag at the Supermarket is irrelevent.. The main issue is human numbers.. ( & I Love People)
Steve
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