What is Cap and Trade?

In short, the “cap” is a legal limit on the quantity of greenhouse gases that a region can emit each year and “trade” means that companies may swap among themselves the permission – or permits – to emit greenhouse gases.
Cap and trade commits a region to responsible limits on so-called “global warming emissions” and gradually steps down those limits over time. Cap and trade promoters will tell you that by setting commonsense rules, cap and trade sparks the competitiveness and ingenuity of the marketplace to reduce emissions as smoothly, efficiently, and cost-effectively as possible. The intended goal, of course, is to limit the percieved influence that we have on the destruction of our planet.
What most discussions regarding Cap and trade do not address however are the falicies in the theory that greenhouse gases are causing global warming at all. There is ample evidence to suggest that the so-called threat of global warming is pure fiction. The relatively marginal temperature increases being sited by some are instead a partial data sample (only the ramping up, not the remainder of the bell curve, the balancing ramping down)of the the natural ebb and flow of earthly temperature differentials related to an increase or decrease in Sun spots, something no amount of human activity or regulation can control.

What is involved in the plans to make Cap and Trade Work?

• Comprehensive scope: All major sectors of carbon emissions -- such as Transportation, the largest emitted of greenhouse gases in the Northwest – are targeted to be included under the cap. The argument is that this makes the cap as effective as possible and ensures a fair playing field for those covered by the cap. In reality it just enables those who will benefit from the increase tax burden to reap as much as possible.
• Upstream regulation: The system operates where fossil fuels enter the economy. Upstream regulation means that fewer than one-tenth of one percent of businesses interact with the system. This makes the regulation easier to control and controling and suppressing growth while reaping huge profits for those in control is what this whole system is designed to do.
• Auctioned permits: Cap and trade promoters are planning to sell pollution permits at public auctions to supposedly prevent unfair windfall profits for big energy companies at the expense of consumers. Here is where the money comes into play. You see cap and trade system basically creates “out of thin air” a new commodity namely “the right or permit to pollute”. In a “free market” anyone would be allowed to participate in these energy permit auctions. With caps on emmisions imposed, there would be quite a variety of interest in obtaining the permits. Everyone from Exxon to Greenpeace would be interested in purchase, some for permit usage and some for permit retirement. This competetive interest is designed to drive up the value of this new commodity. Many of the worlds most successful will tell you that if you you want wealth you need to create interest or demand in a product or service and then meet that need. Welcome to the real reason for Cap and trade!
• Auction revenues protect in-state families: Supporters of Cap and trade claim that revenues from the auction of permits can be invested in community benefits like job training, energy efficiency, and renewable energy production, putting the state at a competitive advantage in a growing clean-energy economy. The real money does not come from the initial sale however, and that would be the only sale the public would benefit from. As permits are retired by environmental groups and the natural cycle of a developing nation requires more energy the remaining permit values will increase exponentially.
• Why Not Give Away Permits?
  When asked why permit would not be freely given out instead of auctioned the Cap and trade crowd asks: “Who gets the extra money that consumers are paying for energy: fossil-fuel companies or in-state families and communities?” Their argument is that giving away permits is just like handing out money, taking billions of dollars out of the pockets of energy consumers and handing them to energy companies.

Extra Money?….. Extra Money?…..Why are we, the consumers, paying extra money to begin with? These Environmental Carpetbaggers are attempting to sell us what we already own! Why should we pay for this "Pretend Commodity"? And any fool will tell you that when the energy companies see additional expenses in any form, permit fees or anything else, it is the consumers that pay the price. In the case of Cap and trade we will be paying an incredibly high price in taxes to an over regulating power for the fabricated reason of reversing global warming.