The Climate

There are many parts of the current economic and political climate which i could rant about right now, but the one that concerns me enough to post here about it is climate change. I'm all for saving the environment. But I think environmental conservation should be part of our mindset and NOT part of a political agenda. As far as i am concerned the jury is still out on whether or not humans are responsible for climate change. This does not mean that we should continue to destroy our air quality. One trip to the Salt Lake valley in the middle of an inversion should be enough to convince even the worst skeptic of our effect on air quality. We have to take care of our planet. Conservation may be our best hope of curing a wide range of diseases and for lessening pain and suffering across the globe. The rain forests are being clear cut at an alarming rate. Many of you know that i have congenital high blood pressure. For that i take an ACE inhibitor that was derived from the venom of a rare South American pit viper Bothrops jararaca. Literally millions of people take ACE inhibitors (which are now produced synthetically) to combat a myriad of health problems and prolong their lives. What if the cure to cancer is out there, but we just cut down the only forest it lives in. We don't know enough of the natural world to not conserve what we have. That said, President Obama's plan to reduce carbon emissions is NOT the way to go. His "Cap and Trade" proposal would do very little to change global carbon emissions, but it would place a tredmendous burden on the energy sector and on consumers of carbon-burning industries. That is you and i my friend. Let me explain the "Cap and Trade" system real quick. The government "Caps" carbon emissions in the US and makes a finite number of "carbon credits" which represent some arbitrary amount of emissions. These credits would be either allotted from or purchased from government (purchase is more likely given the President's budget proposal's accounting for carbon income). These credits could then be traded (for money) to others within the industries that produce carbon emissions. Basically it puts a new strain on an already weak energy sector and makes the distributors (rumored to be an old Chicago friend of Obama's) loads of money for something that is totally contrived. Meanwhile, those that understand the way that businesses run recognize that the big loser in the scenario is the consumer. Again, that is you and I. Businesses pass on tax and other expenses of running their business to the consumer. I saw it all the time in banking. When we wrote a loan, we would include loads of fees, most of which were designed to recuperate lost business expenses. When your electric company has to purchase credits in order to run their generators, the cost of the credits will show up on YOUR monthly bill and make someone else rich for nothing. If your electric company runs out of credits and cannot obtain more, you'll see brownouts all over the nation. In short, the "Cap and Trade" system has shown not to be efficient in Europe, and looks to be difficult for the average American. Another potentially devestating problem is that the cap alone could reduce the GDP by somewhere between 1.5-3.0 %. That is a load! Some recent estimate of our current recession have the GDP as having lost only 1.2%. Imagine tripling our loss overnight! That could be the straw that breaks our already weakened economic camel's back. So i guess what i'm saying is two things: Write your Sentor or Representative and tell him to say "no" to a "cap and trade", and don't refuse to criticize Obama because of his popularity or "honeymoon" time. What most of America wants right now is for our economic camel to get back to full strength. What Obama wants to do is to leverage the camel for political gain and to further his agenda. What he always says is that he won't increase taxes on the average American. What he won't say is that his proposed business taxes and fees like the "cap and trade" will end up getting passed on to you, the average American. Everything he charges a business that you patronize will come out of your wallet. After campaigning on a new era of openess and candor, it sure is telling that President Obama refuses to come out and say that the only way to afford all the government increases are to take them out of the average American's wallet. What he's trying to say is "I can't tell you that I'm going to take your money, but I'm going to take your money." Sorry for the rant. If it makes sense, then fight the "cap and trade."