me&thegals said: Regarding cap and trade, I don't see how big changes will ever be made without economic disincentives. Otherwise, what's the reason to change? Yes, conscience, morals and a concern for nature would be great, but I don't see many businesses being motivated by that. The really smart ones will change ahead of time and appeal to those consumers who really care.
I am curious how much of an increase in your electric bill would you find as an acceptable incentive? How much of an over all increase in your every day costs for food, gas, clothes, etc would you find acceptable? The costs to business will be passed on to you and me and all consumers, so the incentive is really ours. If the over all increased costs to you to maintain your lifestyle is 30% more, will you maintain your life style? Will you cut back? I will cut back as much as I can. I believe most people will do the same. This will mean the economy will suffer further because of the cuts we all will make. I cannot cut my electricity use much more, unless I cut out TV and my computer. We already use CFL's everywhere, have energy efficient appliances and home.
I feel for those who cannot cut any further. There are many who live on the edge already. Their budget is streached so tight that any adverse change will bust their budget. When you have to choose between purchaseing milk for your childs breakfast or some fresh fruit for them to snack on, your budget is stretched thin.
I do not feel guilty for useing the gifts that God has given our country and spreading our wealth around the world through commerce. It is very easy to paint Americans as greedy,poluting, energy hogs. The reality is that many countries economies
depend on our buyin the products they sell, including energy. I also want to recognize the fact that we have been, for many years, consious of pollution. We have more laws regarding this than almost anywhere else in the world. That is one of the reasons why some companies have moved their manufacturing over seas, where the laws regarding polluting are more lax. Factories in Asia and China are notorious for dumping raw wastes in to the rivers and streams and spewing smoke into the air. Remember the olympics in China and the big issues there were with air quality and water quality.
It is easy for the Europeans to look down their noses at us and what they consider wasteful. The productivity of the members of the EU is much lower than here in the US. We do a lot with the energy that they say we are wasteing. We make medicines that we send at little or no cost to Africa to save people infected with AIDs. We also make and send the bed nets to prevent malaria. We use our polluting tractors to grow food that we then refine in our polluting mills and send to impoverished nations for nothing. Our factories make much of the equipment that our military uses to protect much of the rest of the world, especially Europe! So pardon me if I get on my high horse when I hear that we are greedy polluters.
Something that most people don't stop to think about is that the European transportation model would not work well here. Mass transit is not feasable for large areas of the US where the population is sparse. We have more, and larger areas of this country that are rural than they do in Europe. Additionally, the countries of Europe are smaller than some of our states. Covering such large, sparsly populated areas with mass transit would not be cost effective and would wasted energy. Ridership here would not be enough to warrent the expense for the type of rail system that they have in Europe. We do how ever have too many cars in our cities, where mass transit is feasable. That is somerthing we need to work on.
I am tired of America being a whipping post for those who wish to deny the good that she has done. There is a reason that much of the worlds population would love to emegrate here. We do not need to apologise for our use of energy. Fossile fuel is what enabled America to produce all the products that she was able to produce in her manufacturing heyday, and then get these items to the rest of the world to improve their lives. Now, that same fuel is helping other nations move into the industrialised world by producing and then transport their products here. Do I think that it is time to move on to the next phase in energy production? YES! But only if it does not hurt our economy and people.
