Climate Security Act Buried in Bickering
On one hand, the reported demise of S.2191 can be looked at as “Great! Another year goes by and still the US does nothing about global warming”. On the other hand, this proposed “solution” was not going to actually accomplish much except set up another system of income redistribution to be used for political purposes. The “cap and trade” in this bill was not a free market system but a game that Congress would rig.
I am reminded of a survey I received a year or so ago from my Congressman asking me to pick from a list of issues which ones I thought he should “do something about”. Well, to me, that depends on what he intended to do about each issue. If what you want to do is a band-aid that does not get to the root of the problem, than I would prefer you do nothing. On issues of substance, that seems to be what Congress is best at anyway.
The recent increase in energy prices is not a temporary fluke. It is a result of increased demand for fossil fuels. On top of that, burning fossil fuels polutes. Continued attempts to subsidize fossil fuel use and hiding the environmental costs by passing them on to everyone will both hasten and make more drastic the day when fossil fuel energy becomes not just ruinously expensive but unavailable. You can argue about when that will happen, but you cannot argue with the fact that oil is most definitely be taken out of the ground much faster than nature is making more.
The United States (and indeed the world) needs a comprehensive energy policy that first of all puts the cost of pollution on the balance sheet and income statement of the polluter. Let’s use vehicles as an example. First of all, the tax breaks for businesses on SUVs and pick-up trucks should end now. It is completely backwards from an energy policy viewpoint. Second, let’s tax vehicles not based on their value but on their pollution output. Tag fees/property tax charges should be replaced with a fee based on the quantity of pollutants coming out of your tailpipe.
On a corporate level, tax all emissions. You want to pay less tax, lower your emissions. The only subsidies should be to invest in the development of alternative energy sources from non-food products, in more efficient use of energy, and in reducing pollution output. Oh, and the emissions calculation is for the company WorldWide. Those companies that moved their manufacturing to China to escape environmental regulations - get over it!
It shouldn’t take 492 pages to write up that policy into law!