Earth Equity News

Now's The Time to Speak Up on Global Warming, Editorial, Detroit Free Press, February 1, 2009. "Americans have to get serious about what tools they want deployed to ratchet back emissions of global warming gases... A national solution has become essential... Congress can disguise the costs by mandating efficiency standards for vehicles, appliances, light bulbs and buildings. It can set a price for carbon dioxide emissions and let consumers and companies choose how best to lower that cost in their own lives. It can cap carbon dioxide emissions and let companies figure out among themselves how to keep the country under the cap. Or it can come up with some combination of such methods... A carbon tax that puts the cost directly in the customer's face offers the fastest way to change individual behavior... Manufacturers would have no choice but to respond quickly to what consumers want, be it high-mileage cars and more mass transit, solar hot water tanks and bales of attic insulation, or their own backyard windmills... Complexity is the main drawback to a cap-and-trade system, because it's not very clear how it would operate, especially with Congress subject to intense lobbying from every corner of the energy industry... Because elected officials equate taxes with political death, Congress and President Barack Obama are highly unlikely to tumble for a simple carbon tax and rebate system. Unless Americans speak up loudly, the end result is likely to be a mishmash of mandates and a Rube Goldberg-like trading framework for emissions."