[Sustain] Fwd: U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein responding to your message

[Richard Knee]

The currency is money (what else is new?). A cap-and-trade system allows 
a polluter to continue poisoning the air, water and/or soil by shelling 
out a few dollars to a company that's coming in under prescribed 
emission limits. It's a bad system because (a) is sends the message 
"Sure, you can shirk your responsibility if you can pop the bucks for 
it, and (b) as near as I can tell, it does not take into account the 
differences in air, water or soil conditions that affect how well a 
particular locality or region can absorb carbon or a carbon compound 
without suffering irreparable environmental damage.

Case in point: when California lawmakers enacted a cap-and-trade system, 
they envisioned interstate and even international bucks-for-credits 
swaps. You might recall that the bill drew loud applause from leading 
Democrats, Republicans and the likes of PG&E; that in itself is reason 
to distrust it.

If we're going to have a cap-and-trade system, yes, we want transparency 
requirements for it. Better, though, to enact a system that will require 
/everyone/ to contribute to reducing emissions of carbon and other 
pollutants.

Also worth remembering is that DiFi did radio ads opposing the 
public-power initiative (Prop. D) in 2002.

Best,
Rick

"BIG government isn't the problem.
SECRET government is the problem."


Don Eichelberger wrote:
> The following is from a letter I just got from Dianne Feinstein:
>
>   
>> It may also interest you to know that on December 6, 2007, I 
>> introduced the "Emission Allowance Market Transparency Act," which 
>> establishes federal oversight for new carbon emissions trading 
>> markets. This legislation is designed to prevent fraud and 
>> manipulation in the greenhouse gas credit markets that are expected 
>> to develop once Congress approves comprehensive climate change 
>> legislation with a cap-and-trade system for the trading of emissions 
>> credits. Specifically, the "Emission Allowance Market Transparency 
>> Act" requires the Environmental Protection Agency to create a 
>> regulatory structure to oversee the new carbon credit markets.
>>     
>
>
> Is establishing a Carbon Trading Market an efficient way of reducing 
> carbon use?  I would agree with setting up a mechanism for carbon 
> users to pay in to a fund whose purpose would be to invest in 
> technologies and conservation to cut carbon emissions.
>
> But, I fear making carbon a market player will prove a disincentive 
> for setting serious carbon emission limits needed to help defuse 
> global warming.  And, what will the currency be?
>
> I can easily envision Kennicott Coal paying off its obligations as a 
> carbon producer by investing in palm oil plantations in Indonesia, or 
> am I misunderstanding?
>
> Who has answers?
>
> Don
>
>
>
> Don Eichelberger
> DJ Fix Independent Productions
>
> Green Uprising Blog
> www.greenuprising.blogspot.com
>
> My You Tube
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctRp5rGJoUc
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iySwwyZfDgE
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r9rK8nPREA
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5UbnJ0kUqo
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SktIYTyC1U
>
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> http://del.icio.us/donnyfix
>
> The Hegelian/Marxist goal is emancipation.  Marx said it best in 1843:
>
> "Human emancipation wll only be complete when the real, individual 
> man (sic) is absorbed into himself the abstract citizen; when as an 
> individual man, in his every day life, in his work and in his 
> relationships, he has become a species-being (politically accountabe 
> to the whole); and when he recognizes and realizes his own power as 
> social powers, so that he no  longer separates this social power from 
> himself as political power."
>
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