Industry Proponents of Cap-and-Trade Want To Rip You Off

For years, CEI has been warning that industrial suppliers and users of energy only support cap-and-trade climate policies because they think they can manipulate these schemes to their benefit and to their competitors’ detriment. CEI President Fred Smith persuasively made this argument before the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works in February, 2007. Last Tuesday, I made a similar argument on a panel debating government subsidies for green jobs.

Thankfully, it seems the message is finally catching on. To wit, read today’s great column by Tom Borelli, in the DC Examiner. Here’s a taste:

“Failing companies such as AIG, General Electric and General Motors, already propped up with tax dollars, have partnered with radical environmentalists in a scheme their CEOs believe will allow them to profit on fears about global warming.

Corporate members of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a coalition of over 30 businesses and environmental groups urging federal regulation to combat global warming, hope to make money through a government-mandated reduction in greenhouse.

Emissions such as carbon dioxide would be capped, and companies using more emissions than allotted by the government must purchase credits from other businesses.

USCAP and its cap-and-trade agenda were the focus of a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on January 15 – the committee’s first since the more radical Rep.Henry Waxman, D-CA, ousted longtime chairman, Rep. John Dingell, D-MI.

Companies hope to profit from selling their excess emissions credits to businesses with high carbon dioxide emissions, such as coal-based utilities.  Companies burdened with purchasing these credits will then pass the added costs to consumers.”