Saving a planet in peril

Watchman you are absolutely correct. I know a couple of people that have been to China working and they said the Pollution was terrible. Most all of the people that don’t live in the city are Illiterate and could care less about pollution.I won’t go into details about all of the things that I was told because most of it was pure gross. Right now they are all just like Americans were during the Industrial Revolution. Get the product out never mind how you treat the land or the people. The government is not worried about that right now because they actually have Too many People. I am thinking that they are hoping many of them die. But Americans are gonna lose money no matter which way they turn. I would rather go down trying than just sitting here watching every thing go ti H3ll. Besides I think that when China gets just a little bit stronger that they will take over these American Companies and leave them holding the bag. Of course then the owners will expect the Americans that they have left High and Dry to defend them. They will demand that we be Patriots even though they haven’t been.

If companies move to China it will not be because of this act. It will be because of low wages and lax work safety rules.
If you really believe in clean air then you must believe doing something is better then doing nothing.
Title III of the bill provides details on the distribution of allowances allocated to aid affected industries and consumers through the transition to a clean energy, low carbon economy. Rather than being auctioned to the highest bidder, the lion’s share of allowances are allocated to entities in specific sectors, mostly with strict strings attached. For example, the largest chunk – 35% - is awarded to electric power distributors, with the requirement that the benefit of these allowances must be passed on to consumers to cushion against potential increases in energy bills.
However as we all know once the Senate gets hold of this it may become a much different creature. We will just have to wait and see.
As for our water being cleaner its only because of laws that forced companies to clean up their mess not some noble effort on their part.

Iceland is a very small country.  They have figured out how to use the volcanic nature of their island to produce geothermal energy.  Clean, efficient, and really, really cheap.

There are areas of this country which could thrive off of geothermal energy.  Active volcanic areas like Hawaii and Alaska immediately come to mind.  But also consider the Yellowstone cauldron.  Properly tapping this resource could very possibly provide the entire electricity requirement for the west coast. 

And geothermal is just one area of “clean” energy, much like nuclear power.  Yet, there doesn’t seem to be alot of interest in developing geothermal or expanding nuclear power.  The major emphasis now seems to be on wind and solar power and biodiesel fuel.

Upgrading our electric grid is long overdue.  Providing cheaper energy for homes, businesses, and industry is always a good idea.  Reducing pollution into the air is a benefit to us all.  And, if these goals could be accomplished while at the same time protecting our workers from cheap overseas competition in Latin America and Asia, I’d say that on balance, the cap and trade legisation is a good thing.

But here comes the punch line.  The cap and trade bill, as passed in the House, doesn’t accomplish any of these things.  This bill is, for lack of a better term, a bribe paid to the global warming crowd which helped elect the current administration.  If this bill is really so necessary, why was an EPA analyst prevented from presenting a study which directly contradicted the Obama administration’s conclusions which justified this bill?  If this bill is really so necessary, why is it when you ask a supporter of the global warming theory to “prove that global warming even exists”, the best they can offer is to tell you to “prove it doesn’t exists.“  And, as if homeowners don’t have enough to worry about, there is apparently a provision in this bill that before you can sell your house, you have to make energy upgrades to comply with some type of new efficiency standard established in this bill.  This has been reported by several news networks (including, believe it or not, Keith Olberman on MSNBC - one of Obama’s loudest cheerleaders).  Like members of Congress, I haven’t actually read the bill.

If the question is do you want clean water to drink, if the question is do you want clean air to breath, ... we all want that.  And, as compared to other countries like China, India, Mexico, and Eastern European countries, our water and air, quality wise, is leaps and bounds ahead of these other countries.  The question we should ask is this:  Is the cost in captial and lost jobs that will result from this legislation worth the miniscule improvement in our environment which this bill offers?  For many of us, the answer is a resounding NO.

Of course - this is just my opinion.

Meee42, I agree we need to develop clean cheap energy. We do need to do those things that are good for the environment, It’s just that Cap and rade and Watchmans ideas are too expensive and do too little (The expense is not the thing, If the money was producing results it would be different) Solar and wind will NOT replace oil and gas for a long long time.Our first priority should be to figure a way to use what we HAVE TO HAVE in a clean efficient way While we develop the other technologies.
NASA turned itself into a climate authority because they saw themselves becoming less necessary as a space group. Follow the money and you will learn to take everything they say about climate with a grain of salt.
I heard a FORMER NASA scientist the other day discussing “life cyle” measurement of energy efficiency. He used the example that a totally electric car would be heralded as a “wonderfully fuel efficient and suberbly clean vehicle”. He described it as a coal fired engine riding down the road. He said every bit of enrgy that car produced was derived from a coal fired facility so every mile it was driven was in effect spewing emissions into the air (the emissions were just sent up from the power plant while the vehicle was charging). He also went on to say that most people wouldn’t want to talk about the environmental impact of producing and disposing of the batteries. Both making the batteries (adds to carbon output) and disposing of them had serious negative impacts.

Similarly, I think cap and trade does too little and was designed by (Not Obama) folks who saw a way to make big money disguising it as “Green Compassion”.

I am tired of the doomsayers who think anything that is done to fix this planet might cost them something. Well I’m sorry but it needs to be fixed. Like it or not something needs to be done.
Spouting off the likes of Rush Limbough does not clean the air or help businesses.
Look around, southside virginia is getting into the clean energy business! Do you not read? Every major investment in the last year in Danville has revolved around new sustainable energy. Danville will thrive on this business. My only real complaint is that nuclear and hydro power were not included in the bill.
The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 is intended to create new jobs, save Americans hundreds of billions of dollars in energy costs,and reduce global warming.
You can’t just keep saying China does it so its ok. This is a schoolyard comment meant for a sandbox not for serious conversation.
Yes I have a businesss, a payroll, and lots of overhead costs. However I know that any cost of this bill (again listen the cost is minimal) will not put me over the edge. If it does you you were living on the brink anyway.
By the way I did not vote for Obama, however I also see he inherited a mess. I think he has too much on his plate right now and needs to focus on one thing at a time.
In 2004 a Pentagon study found: Climate change ‘should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern.An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is ‘plausible and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately’, they conclude.
“Chicken little” the sky is not falling in….......