Remember “Cap and Trade?” The anti-market allegedly “market-based” “solution” to man-faked global warming climate change?
A central authority (usually a governmental body) sets a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that may be emitted.
The limit or cap is allocated and/or sold by the central authority to firms in the form of emissions permits which represent the right to emit or discharge a specific volume of the specified pollutant.
Permits (and possibly also derivatives of permits) can then be traded on secondary markets.
Except:
Cap-and-Trade Schemes Are Not Markets
Only if (you) want government to raise energy prices, make coal uneconomical as an electricity fuel, or restrict Americans’ access to carbon-based energy.…
“Cap and trade” is a policy so disastrous it couldn’t pass a Democrat-majority Congress – with Democrat President Barack Obama eagerly waiting with pen at the ready.
(Democrat) Ben Nelson: Cap-and-Trade Will Not Pass This Congress
Cap and Trade is Dead (Really, Truly, I’m Not Kidding)
Except with this President, no terrible idea dies just because the Constitutional process demands it.
(Environmental Protection Agency) EPA: If Congress Doesn’t Pass Cap-and-Trade, We Will
And so they have. Here’s the EPA’s “Cap and Trade” page.
And in government, terrible ideas are like kudzu – they rapidly, illegally spread everywhere.
USDA, EPA Partnership Supports Water Quality Trading
The U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have announced an expanded partnership to support water quality trading.…
Oh look – the government is assaulting our farmers’ water supply. Where else have we seen that?
The EPA is Turning Water on Farms Into a Weapon Against Farmers
The EPA exists to assault the private sector. And it is teaming up with other government departments to maximize the damage.
The USDA is a complete waste of money, time and space. Humans have engaged in agriculture for 10,000 years – we did so for 9,900 of those years without a government department. I think we’ve got this.
And, of course, there is zero Constitutional authority granted to the federal government to have a USDA.
Having no useful purpose, the Department of Agriculture works day and night to make private agriculture more difficult and expensive. Which raises our food prices – and makes our farmers less competitive on the now-global market.
These government-inflicted regulations and costs – by a department that shouldn’t exist – foster other government programs that shouldn’t exist.
Like the horrendous Farm Bill. Government makes it nearly impossible for farmers to turn a profit – then subsidizes them.
Like Food Stamps. Government jacks the price of food – then buys tens of millions of people food at the government-inflated prices because they can no longer afford it.
The Obama Administration is assaulting the private sector with every department, agency, commission and board at its $4-trillion-a-year disposal. Including unilaterally imposing “Cap and Trade” across multiple agencies. And what has transpired during the Obama Administration’s tenure?
14 Million More on Food Stamps Under Obama
Food Stamp Growth 75X Greater than Job Creation
It would seem there is a correlation there.
Editor’s Note: This first appeared in PJ Media.