Start with the stipulation that the Cap and Trade policy being proposed for the President’s new budget is a politically expedient half-step.  The reality is that we need a carbon tax, but that won’t fly in Washington, so we’ll start with Cap and Trade.

Here is a video about how carbon dioxide is effecting the environment:

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-13-v-82.html

Here is a video about a unique solution, nuclear explosivity:

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-13-v-45.html

Now to the objections as voiced by the defenders of the status quo:

Cap and Trade is a burden on the economy, a hidden tax that will burden us all, blah, blah, blah.

I found out that when I sit in one place for hours blogging, my butt starts to hurt.  So every once in a while, I stand up, stretch, walk around, something to avoid the pain.

Is there some reasonable argument that a business will react differently?  If a company finds out that wasting energy is costing it more money, to the point where the cost becomes painful, won’t that company change its behavior?

Estimates are that we waste 30% of the energy we use in the U.S.  All experts agree that energy conservation is the cheapest form of energy policy reform, and the least painful way to achieve energy independence that ends dependence on polluting fuel.  But only some businesses stop wasting energy voluntarily.

A cap and trade policy would make wasting energy a real pain in the butt, and my bet is that almost every business will change its behavior to avoid the pain.

We have heard about some of the knocks on the first draft of the economic stimulus package which has passed the House of Representatives.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/20/AR2009012003980.html?hpid=topnews

For example, of $30 billion in highway spending, less than $4 billion would occur over the next two years. Of $18.5 billion proposed for renewable energy, less than $3 billion would be spent by 2011. And of $14 billion for school construction, less than $7 billion would be spent in the first two years.

How about something that could get people working right now and help us reduce our dependence on polluting fuels.  Here is a suggestion from the National Association of Homebuilders.

http://www.nahb.org/news_details.aspx?sectionID=0&newsID=8520

Mike Hodgson, president of the California energy consulting company ConSol, revealed the results of a study conducted for the California Homebuilding Foundation last fall. Seventy percent of the greenhouse gas emissions related to single-family envelope energy consumption can be attributed to homes built before 1983, the study found.

“Simple arithmetic demonstrates how retrofitting existing homes with energy-efficient features is four to eight times more carbon- and cost-efficient than adding further energy-efficiency requirements to new housing,” Hodgson said.

The importance of window caulking

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-6-v-71.html

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs can be beautiful

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-6-v-55.html

Energy Star Appliances to save lots of energy

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-6-v-43.html

Here is a link to more great energy saving ideas from the EPA Energy Star Program

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=home_improvement.hm_improvement_hpwes