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Royal Flying Chariots
Cap-and-trade doesn’t seem like a smart plan for the U.S. But it’s one that’s likely to happen, because the biggest winners in this race to "save the planet" would be the world’s financial centers; Wall Street would be selling the right to pollute as if it were a common commodity. Already Bart Chilton of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission has said that carbon trading could become a $2 trillion market. Just slightly less money than America now pays for health care.If Al Gore, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Bloomberg, Nancy Pelosi and other public figures who are all evangelists for saving the planet would like to lead us to a better place, they should consider leading by example. Quit flying in private corporate jets, (Or government jets) because it’s an incredibly waste of energy, creating too much carbon emissions for one person to fly. The limos should go too. Downsize your mansions, get rid of your multiple homes, and dramatically shrink your own carbon footprint. That’s leading by example. Instead, the very people who preach on saving the planet are acting like France’s Royal Family, telling commoners that we must sacrifice more for the good of the Republic.Give Logic a ChanceConsidering that there are 6 billion people on the planet and lately most of them want to live their version of the American Dream, there is no one best answer for emissions. It is equally true that all of us waste too much energy. But we haven’t given business logic a chance: First, it dictates, you go through a period of intelligent conservation until you have maximized your efficient use of a resource. Then, and only then, do you consider other ways if you must reduce consumption more. Everything our elected officials have done in the past 14 years has had the opposite effect of what they promised, costing individuals, corporations and industries more money to cover their monthly expenses. And those costs had to be made up elsewhere – often by cutting the number of employees, then the wages of those remaining. That’s not a plan for the future success of the country. But because legislators never look back, they ignore the damage in their wake.Word to the wise: Soon the same individuals that gave you $147 a barrel for oil will determine how much of a "carbon tax" should be added to it. Where does that take the price of gas and electricity? Meanwhile, TXU will roll out a new plan that calls for charging customers 24.3 cents per kilowatt-hour during peak hours. However, if the government truly believes that energy costs need to rise, forcing us to conserve more, it should be in a tax that is predictable in cost and goes towards lowering the deficits. Why would they give this "save the planet" program to the same individuals who have created three major bubbles that exploded in the past fifteen years?© 2009 Ed WallaceEd Wallace has received the Gerald R. Loeb Award for business journalism, given by the Anderson School of Business at UCLA, and is a member of the American Historical Association. He reviews new cars every Friday morning at 7:15 on Fox Four’s Good Day, frequently contributes articles to BusinessWeek Online and hosts the top-rated talk show, Wheels, 8:00 to 1:00 Saturdays on 570 KLIF. E-mail: wheels570@sbcglobal.net, and access all of Ed’s work at his Web site, www.insideautomotive.com."If Al Gore, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Bloomberg, Nancy Pelosi and other public figures who are evangelists for 'saving the planet’ would like to lead us to a better place, they should consider leading by example. … Instead, the very people who preach on 'saving the planet’ are acting like France’s Royal Family, telling commoners that we must sacrifice more for the good of the Republic."
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