Reflective Blog

Through this class I learned a great deal about writing, both through the essay writing process and through the blogging assignments. The blogs were a great way to prepare for the actual assignments. I'm really glad we had the blogging experience, because along with peer-editing, these blogs allow us to get feedback from our classmates to help guide us through the writing process. These blogs also in a way, say a lot about us as people, because it shows our writing style which can say a lot. I think the blogging was a positive experience, and would definitely recommend it whether it is a requirement or not.

Here, you can read about what Dhara Shah thinks about life without blogging. She calls it "odd."

Cap and Trade Issues

The two issues that were most important in determining which side to support in this conflict were the economy and the environment. Out of all of the issues that Cap and Trade would affect, I feel that these are the two most relevant. Cap and Trade's effects on the economy vary slightly depending on the point of view, but overall they are negative. Economically, the Cap and Trade system is a great idea for financially successful businesses, but unfair for less financially fortunate businesses. Lucrative and established companies would be able to afford more “trade” credits than companies that are either new or struggling to stay in business. Starting a company requires large investments; imposing the Cap and Trade plan would force new companies and financially struggling companies to make a difficult choice regarding production strategies that will yield the best results. One option would be performing large amounts of work at an average quality level, choosing rate of production over quality of product. The other would entail performing a significantly smaller amount of work at a much higher quality, because a significant fraction of the budget must be allotted to paying for the credits that fund the company’s credits to set the necessary carbon emissions quota. Financially stable and well-established companies would not need to worry about making decisions like this, giving them unfair advantages in production spending. Additionally, Cap and Trade will cause electricity rates to skyrocket. Cap and Trade's effects on the environment are positive, but the impact of the environmental effects are far less strong than the economic effects. Some of these advantages include limiting the amount of carbon emissions, the releasing of greenhouse gasses, and sulfur dioxide, all of which are detrimental to the environment and which over time can lead to global warming. There are very few, if any environmental disadvantages, which causes many to argue in favor of the policy, thus adding to the controversial nature of the subject. Because the positive environmental effects are greatly outweighed by the negative economic effects, Cap and Trade would have a negative net impact and would be more harmful than helpful.

Articles from the CQ Researcher

Two articles from the CQ researcher:

Feldstein, Martin. "Cap-and-Trade: All Cost, No Benefit." Washington Post, June 1, 2009, www.washingtonpost.com.
Krugman, Paul. "Betraying the Planet." New York Times, June 29, 2009, www.nytimes.com.


Feldstein's article argues that the negative effects of Cap and Trade will greatly outweigh its positive effects. Feldstein claims that the main objective of the Cap and Trade system is to attempt to reduce the possibility of global warming. However, Cap and Trade's minimal impact on preventing global warming will be greatly outweighed by the difficulties it would impose on American households with increased taxes. Also, if the bill were passed it would be unfair to many companies, because only certain companies would be favored and given more trade credits while all would be given a certain cap. The only industries that would benefit from such a system would be electricity companies, while all others suffer. Throughout the entire article, Feldstein explains and repeatedly restates how the biological rewards of the Cap and Trade system would be greatly outweighed by the negative consequences of the system.

In Krugman's article, there is no mention of the economy. Many representatives (212) voted against the bill, but not for economic reasons. The main point that brought about disagreement and raised questions was the fact that these representatives claimed that there was not a problem which Cap and Trade would fix. They saw nothing wrong or unusual in the patterns of the release of greenhouse gases. When people explained the problems of the environment to the public and these representatives, it seemed as if they didn't care. Krugman goes as far as to call these representatives "traitors" who are committing "treason against the planet."

While Feldstein's article is less closed-minded and his points are researched more thoroughly, Krugman had a stronger, more passionate argument for a different reason to be angry with the Cap and Trade situation.


This video helped me understand how the Cap and Trade system actually works. Before I was very confused about the subject and why it was so significant.