Cap and Trade Friend or Foe
Have you ever heard of cap and trade? If you are like me and don't have that time to watch the news, you probably don't know what it is. Cap and trade is an idea that big corporations like Enron and Goldman Sachs came up with to solve the mass production of carbon (its in everything!). There big idea is to start trading carbon, which would generate 3 million dollars a year. This sounds like a good idea right? Here is why this is a very debatable idea that can puts us danger.

Every year we produce 350 ppm of carbon, which is not good, Scientist believe we should reduce our carbon footprint by 80%. Which is a great idea, but it’s harder than it sounds. The plan is for major corporations to sell carbon to give the government a yearly cap. If they use less permits than planned they could sell them to other companies. I think it’s a great idea, but it has some flaws that need to be fixed. Each year there would be less carbon permits so we could reduce our use. For starters the contract say that they would give out free permits to people who need them, also known as cap and giveaway, the more they pollute the more permits they can get! There have been countries in Europe that have tried the cap and giveaway and prices were crazy and the only people that made money were the major corporations.
The second flaw is that companies want to offset which means that companies reduce carbon and then sell it to other companies that need carbon. The hazardous thing about this is that companies might say that they are using less but actually using the same amount and then selling their carbon. They use more carbon and cheat by not removing carbon and still making real money.

The final flaw is one of the most frightening, because it does not have to do with money or major corporations, it has to do with us! This is what some people call the “distraction” because this cap and trade idea might take a long time to execute, it might not even be approved and this is only distracting us from solving the major carbon problem. The corporations are taking over, they took away the clean air act that help us because it stated that carbon was a pollutant, but it did not benefit the companies because they lost money, so it was removed.

We the people should have the power, not major corporations. The first step is to spread the news, everyone should know about cap and trade, still no many people do don’t. Secondly we should come up with a proposal and bring it to people that can help us, like the governors and senators. Lastly our ideas are put to the test! This is a great idea but we need help, so if you want to help spread the news tell your friends, maybe they will be interested and will want to help. I know this is not the most exciting thing you could be doing with your time but it is very important that people know so everyone can help, and share their opinion on cap and trade. This is our planet we are talking about we can't just leave this problem to be solved by some people that just what to make a profit, we have to fight!
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