.png)
Cap and trade good for jobs and our children's future
We must act soon to stop these ecological and economic threats and get America running on clean energy. Fortunately, we’re closer than ever to gaining the support in Congress to pass a bill that will cap greenhouse gas emissions and provide the U.S. with clean energy incentives. In May, the key committee in the House voted in favor of legislation, named the American Clean Energy and Security Act. This legislation would gradually slow the emission of greenhouse gases over the coming years. A vote on the bill in the full House is expected today.
The House bill would use a market-based approach called cap and trade. Cap and trade puts a firm limit, or cap, on emissions. Over time, the cap will steadily decline, so that by 2050 greenhouse gas emission will have been reduced by 83 percent. Companies that are under their emission targets can sell their allowances on a new carbon market. Companies that cannot meet their targets can buy extra allowances from the same carbon market. Cap and trade uses the efficiency of the marketplace to drive innovation, creating new carbon-reducing technologies at the lowest possible cost.
When used to fight acid rain in the 1990 Clean Air Act, the cap-and-trade approach reduced emissions faster, and more cheaply, than anyone predicted. Under cap and trade, government doesn’t pick winners and losers — private markets do that job. This is how it should be. The failed government investments in oil shale in the 1970s offer a perfect illustration of this point.
Both the Dow Chemical Co. and Environmental Defense Fund are members of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of leading companies and five environmental groups, who support cap-and-trade legislation. Among them are some of the biggest names in corporate America, including GE, Johnson & Johnson and DuPont. The House bill incorporates many of USCAP’s recommendations. It represents our best chance to stop global warming and encourage clean energy technologies.
The new technologies that the cap-and-trade approach will create will also create new jobs for America. A single wind turbine, for example, contains 250 tons of steel and 8,000 parts, from ball bearings and electronic controls to gearboxes. Jobs manufacturing those parts can be created right here in America, especially in our manufacturing heartland, the Midwest. Ohio has lost more than 213,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000. For Michigan, the figure is almost 497,000 jobs lost. One way to jump-start our economy is with a cap-and-trade bill.
Opponents claim that this bill will result in higher energy costs. They are confusing price with cost. Although this legislation will lead to modestly higher energy prices, this, in turn, will lead to greater energy efficiency and new, cleaner energy technologies. This will, in all likelihood, result in lower overall energy costs. A true win, win, win — lower energy costs, greater energy security and fewer carbon emissions!
