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.