Comments on: Closing the Gap http://www.terrarossa.com/closing-the-gap/ Where Conservatives Consider a New Energy Future Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:27:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Jim Davis http://www.terrarossa.com/closing-the-gap/#comment-752 Jim Davis Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:32:17 +0000 http://www.terrarossa.com/?p=113#comment-752 It has become abundantly clear to me that the ultimate goal goal of this site is to sell the idea of carbon caps. Achieving energy independence is a secondary concern, if it all. So lets assume I buy into the idea of carbon caps (and I dont) as an alternative to a government bureaucracy to regulate carbon. How does this work? If I decide to build a steel mill (burns coke makes lots of CO2) somebody has to make sure that I purchase the necessary carbon credits. That wouldnt be the government? Who makes sure that the certificates of carbon are not fake? Who makes sure that the people who sell them are legitimate? Al Gore owns a company which sells carbon credits. How does anybody know or enforce how his company actually reduces carbon emissions by the amount he sells? There is room for massive fraud here which means a federal bureaucracy will have to be created to watch over it. As to the notion that this will be beneficial to the economy, this is absurd. Just because the cost isnt in the form of a tax, but is in the increased cost of doing business doesnt make it any better for the economy than a tax (which is not good at all). Increasing the cost of energy is always a drag on the economy. The money spent on reducing carbon or finding ways to do it does not benefit the economy, it merely consumes wealth just like any other regulation, or just like welfare spending. Maybe we can afford it now, but if you look at the trend in welfare spending and regulatory compliance, you will see that the day is comming where will not be able to afford it. It has become abundantly clear to me that the ultimate goal goal of this site is to sell the idea of carbon caps. Achieving energy independence is a secondary concern, if it all. So lets assume I buy into the idea of carbon caps (and I dont) as an alternative to a government bureaucracy to regulate carbon. How does this work? If I decide to build a steel mill (burns coke makes lots of CO2) somebody has to make sure that I purchase the necessary carbon credits. That wouldnt be the government? Who makes sure that the certificates of carbon are not fake? Who makes sure that the people who sell them are legitimate? Al Gore owns a company which sells carbon credits. How does anybody know or enforce how his company actually reduces carbon emissions by the amount he sells? There is room for massive fraud here which means a federal bureaucracy will have to be created to watch over it.

As to the notion that this will be beneficial to the economy, this is absurd. Just because the cost isnt in the form of a tax, but is in the increased cost of doing business doesnt make it any better for the economy than a tax (which is not good at all). Increasing the cost of energy is always a drag on the economy. The money spent on reducing carbon or finding ways to do it does not benefit the economy, it merely consumes wealth just like any other regulation, or just like welfare spending. Maybe we can afford it now, but if you look at the trend in welfare spending and regulatory compliance, you will see that the day is comming where will not be able to afford it.

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