This week the Senate took up a debate on a bill regarding Climate Change. The heart of the bill is a plan to CAP the production of greenhouse gases and, for the first time, force polluters to buy (TRADE) permits to emit carbon dioxide. Both presidential candidates have expressed support for the cap-and-trade concept that underlies this legislation, but also have said they would like to see changes in the current bill. Senator Barack Obama, would like to see its pollution targets strengthened, while Senator John McCain, is demanding that it provide more help for the nuclear power industry.
The measure, as proposed, would reduce American production of climate-altering gases by nearly 70 percent from current levels by 2050. It would provide billions of dollars in subsidies for energy conservation and environmentally clean technologies, creating millions of jobs, proponents say.
The sale of the permits would raise more than $5 trillion for the government in the coming decades, money that the bill proposes to distribute to affected industries, consumers and local governments in one of the biggest programs of redistribution of American wealth in history. The bill’s proponents say the money would help pay for a technological leap that would create millions of new jobs while cleaning the atmosphere.
