76% of Americans have no clue what cap-and-trade means
Rasmussen Reports‘ new survey has revealed a huge disconnect between the American people and the Obama administration’s proposed cap-and-trade climate change legislation.
The survey asked respondents to pick the subject area that the proposed cap-and-trade legislation will deal with: Environment, Health Care Reform, or Wall Street Regulation. A stunning 76% of the respondents were unable to select the correct Environment option. 30% of those surveyed stated that they had ‘no idea’, while 29% believe that cap-and-trade is a Wall Street regulation mechanism. Health care reform was the choice for 17%.
For the record, cap-and-trade is defined by Wikipedia as:
A central authority (usually a government or international body) sets a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. Companies or other groups are issued emission permits and are required to hold an equivalent number of allowances (or credits) which represent the right to emit a specific amount. The total amount of allowances and credits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Companies that need to increase their emission allowance must buy credits from those who pollute less. The transfer of allowances is referred to as a trade. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed. Thus, in theory, those that can easily reduce emissions most cheaply will do so, achieving the pollution reduction at the lowest possible cost to society.
While the intent of the cap-and-trade legislation is to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases in the USA, there is a considerable amount of skepticism that the proposed bill will have a detrimental effect on the already weakened economy. For individual citizens, the most noticeable impacts of cap-and-trade may be inflated prices for electricity and energy (which is also expected to trickle down to impact prices of food and other consumer goods).
While corporate America has been working hard to prepare for the likely cap-and-trade world, Main Street America is very behind in understanding this landmark piece of legislation. The Obama administration has to make it a priority to educate the American people about the purpose of cap-and-trade, how it will work, and what it means to the average citizen.
When President Bush attempted to overhaul Social Security a number of years ago, he aggressively promoted his plan through a relentless barrage of town hall meetings, press conferences, and promotion through other media outlets. Although his campaign was unsuccessful, the public was well aware of the plan and the Bush administration could not be accused of hiding the details of the proposed changes to Social Security.
The Waxman-Markey Clean Energy and Security Act (the ‘cap-and-trade bill’) has the potential to permanently alter the American economic landscape. Hopefully the Obama administration will act to reverse the woeful job it has done to date in preparing the American people for this potential carbon-oriented policy.
Image: Caveman 92223 at flickr under a CC License
Stephen Boles is co-founder of Kuzuka, a marketplace website that will bring a new level of convenience and confidence to carbon offset customers and provide consulting services to organizations that want to assess and reduce their carbon footprint.
I’m even more confused now. At the beginning of the article you talk about how 76% of respondents didn’t know that cap-and-trade was an environmental issue, but throughout the article you only talk about the economic impact it will have. And you make no attempt to clear up the confusion by explaining what cap-and-trade is.
Matthew,
Excellent points in your comment. The reason for the strong emphasis on the economic is because this is likely going to be where individuals will see the most noticeable impacts of the bill. I have edited the original article to make it more clear.
I’ll bet you a large fraction of that 76% could explain in great detail the NHL salary cap and how teams trade players and what that means to hockey franchises. Hell, when they introduced the salary cap I had friends who were screaming about how it was going to “kill hockey” (and then the industry adapted – go figure).
People know this stuff (cap & trade). They just don’t know that they know it, because most people only learn things in one context.
Top Ten Reasons why Cap and Trade is a bad idea
1. Cap and Trade (C&T) will raise energy costs 30 to 50 percent. This will have a huge impact on the American economy.
2. It will destroy American Manufacturing. China and other developing countries have no interest in buying into this plan. By raising the cost advantage of off-shoring production, this bill will accelerate a trend started years ago. Within a few years there will be no U.S. manufacturing.
3. It does nothing to solve the problem. C & T focuses on penalizing the use of fossil fuels. At the current time, there are no politically / economically viable alternatives. The theory is that destroying the carbon based fuel will make something magically replace it. This is a fantasy being sold by the liberal elite. The reality is that it will be a lot of self inflicted pain.
4. It is overly complicated. The energy caps and regulations will be difficult to understand and apply; requiring a legion of lawyers and bureaucrats to interpret and implement. This is not efficient by any definition. The only groups this will help are lawyers and government workers, two key constituents of the current administration.
5. It will drive massive amounts of corruption in Congress. Thinks about which will costs less? Developing and deploying technology to capture the carbon emissions from your coal plant or paying your congressman to insert a line into the omnibus spending bill, exempting you from cap and trade limits? If you doubt this would happen, research how congress gutted the Corporate Fuel Economy Standards for new cars.
6. It’s not free market. The regulations will randomly produce huge winners and losers, determined mostly on who did a good job of lobbying Congress. Artificially giving a value to something (like carbon), that has no value does not suddenly create a free market.
7. The main driver for Cap and Trade by the current administration is to raise money to pay for their social agenda. Most agree that for the next twenty years it will do little to reduce carbon emissions.
8. Green Jobs are a Myth. Yes, there are going to be some jobs created to manufacture and install non-carbon based energy sources. But not nearly as many jobs as will be lost by high energy costs.
9. Too little too late: If you believe the radical global warming advocates, we are within a few years of the tipping point. The goal of cap and trade is to see a measureable impact by 2050. If we are that close to the tipping point, we should just enjoy our last few years.
10. And finally – this is the government we are talking about. When was the last time they actually created a fix that didn’t have massive unintended consequences? These are the same “geniuses” that were going to solve the energy problem with ethanol. And we all know how well that turned out.
Informed Americans understand that cap-and-trade is a criminal SCAM against the poor and the middle class, which will further empower and benefit only Obama and his billionaire friends.
Cap and Trade “would be the equivalent of an atomic bomb directed at the U.S. economy—all without any scientific justification,” says famed climatologist Dr. S. Fred Singer. It would significantly increase taxes and the cost of energy, forcing many companies to close, thus increasing unemployment, poverty and dependence.
Who benefits from the scam? People like Obama and his billionaire fraudulent friends (Gore, Soros, Goldman Sachs, Obama’s Chicago Climate Exchange friends, GE, etc.). Some of them have already made billions and others plan to make them at our expense.
GE, for example, has bombarded us with daily propaganda — through its NBC networks, that includes MSNBC and CNBC — to make us swallow the scam. Why? Because they stand to make BILLIONS at our expense. Not only is GE the largest wind turbine generator maker, but it may benefit as the sole “secondary market” trader of the cap and trade credits.
Of course we care about the environment, and that’s another reason to fight the scam. Poor countries can’t take care of the environment. Just look at Haiti!
There’s NO global warming, CO2 is NOT toxic to humans, and the climate is ALWAYS changing, no matter what we do! Our main threat right now is not global warming but Obama’s global warming/cap and trade scam.
California CalEPA Secretary Linda Adams, signed a MOU with the UN in China on earth day. China gets about 50% of the world carbon tax and the China government gets a 50% tax of the credits.
** China goods and services may increase
** We pay the carbon tax and Pew Business Environmental Leadership Council (BELC) Member Companies: ABB, Air Products, Alcoa Inc., American Electric Power, Bank of America, BASF, Baxter International Inc., The Boeing Company, BP, California Portland Cement, CH2M HILL, Citi, Cummins Inc., Deere & Company, Deutsche Telekom, The Dow Chemical Company, DTE Energy, Duke Energy, DuPont, Entergy, Exelon, GE, Hewlett-Packard Company, Holcim (US) Inc., IBM, Intel, Interface Inc., Johnson Controls, Inc., Lockheed Martin, Marsh, Inc., Novartis, Ontario Power Generation, PG&E Corporation, PNM Resources, Rio Tinto, Rohm and Haas, Royal Dutch/Shell, SC Johnson, Toyota, TransAlta, United Technologies, Weyerhaeuser, Whirlpool Corporation, Wisconsin Energy Corporation and friends may all share in the public/private partnership of corporate and NGO welfare
Your articles seems fine to me. I think we should do away with this CAP AND TRADE thing. It will cost everybody money, and were tired of paying more money ! Im sick and tired of paying MORE money to the Government, to the Utilities, to any Corporation that produces carbon emmissions that make the products and/or services that I already pay for ! Right now money is tight everywhere and jobs are getting scarce. Why don’t we think of another way of giving incentives for reduced amount of emmissions, like tax breaks or something like that. Cap and trade to me means more of my income is Gone and so will yours. how about we give ourselves a break ??? Get rid of this CAP AND TRADE !! I know it might help the environment but we can still do that in other ways that are less costly.