LETTER- Cap-and-Trade rewards Wall Street greed
The July 9 article on Tom Perriello's vote in favor of environmental legislation passed by the House recently "Cap Gun: GOP targets Perriello for energy vote" was quite interesting. Known as Cap-and-Trade, this bill will theoretically help reduce pollution and curtail global warming.
But don't hold your breath.
Congressman Perriello says that he's proud that this bill represents a move away from "special interests." But that is surely not the case. Quite the reverse.
Don't get me wrong; I voted for Perriello and see him as a huge improvement over our former Congressman, Virgil Goode, who almost always voted against the interests of his constituents and in favor of those of big business. But the Cap-and-Trade bill is, in fact, a potential bonanza for "special interests."
Those who are most responsible for the current financial and economic crisis have already been rewarded with a taxpayer-funded bailout that not only preserved banks and brokerages and their stock prices, but also subsidized compensation and bonuses. In the first quarter of this year alone, Goldman Sachs, for example, awarded nearly $5 billion in bonuses, and AIG, already into the taxpayers for $180 billion, is set to award more bonuses.
The essence of the Cap-and-Trade bill is a commodities "market" that trades carbon (pollution) credits. This "market" is likely to be worth as much as $2 trillion. The very same Wall Street investment banks and brokerages that casued the current calamity like this bill– they lobbied for this bill– because they'll control and profit handsomely from the "market" it creates. And they won't have the interests of the consumer or the nation in mind as they manipulate it for profits.
If, indeed, as critics claim, the Cap-and-Trade bill imposes higher costs on American consumers– a tax– then that tax should be set, collected, and invested by the government on behalf of its citizens and not by Wall Street special interests.
Mark Crockett
Kents Store
[email protected]
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