Senate prepares for voting on law full of controversy because of potential causes | by CARA MCCLAIN

The cap and trade bill, which sets a limit on how much greenhouse gases businesses can emit, passed in the House of Representatives in June and now waits for the Senate to vote on it.

The bill’s main goal is to reduce the amount of carbon and greenhouse gases that factories release into the atmosphere. Because the bill could affect everyday Americans, many people are questioning what they are willing to sacrifice for climate change and whether it is worth it.

The Enviromental Protection Agency, or EPA, said on their government website that the idea behind the cap and trade system is to allow businesses to use ‘pollution credits’ in order to emit greenhouse gases, but once the credits are all used up, then the business can’t produce any more pollution. If a business doesn’t use their credits, then they can sell the right to emit pollution to another company.

If a company pollutes over the preset amount of emissions, they can buy an allowance for the extra emissions they produced.

EPA said the bill will ‘reward innovation, efficiency, and early action and provide a strict environmental accountability without inhibiting economic growth.’

According to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative policy research institute, the businesses that would be directly affected by the cap and trade bill are the electric utilities, oil refineries and natural gas producers as well as other gas emitting businesses.

Because the bill will require companies to pay allowances for extra emissions, the Heritage Foundation predicted companies like gas and electricity companies will end up raising the price of their products or services to keep up.

The Heritage Foundation said homeowners, small business owners, car owners, property owners and farmers would be indirectly affected because the cost that the cap and trade bill will put on companies would be handed down to consumers.

However, President Obama has said that creating a cap and trade program is necessary and important. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi believes strongly in the cap and trade bill and spoke of the subject in January with the San Francisco Chronicle.

“I believe we have to [pass a cap-and-trade bill] because we see that as a source of revenue,” Pelosi said. “Cap-and-trade is there for a reason. You cap and you trade so you can pay for some of these investments in energy independence and renewables.”

The Sightline Institute, a non-profit research and communication center based in Seattle, believes that the cap and trade bill will ‘speed the transition to a clean energy economy.’

Many people like CBS news blogger Declan McCullagh are taking guesses at what the cost of the effects of the bill per family will be. McCullagh said the additional amount of money families will have to pay will be around $1,761 per year. He said it could cost taxpayers anywhere from $100 billion to $200 billion overall.

However the Congressional Budget Office said something different.  Their guess is by the year 2020 the cap and trade bill would only cost a family $175 on top of what they are already paying. The Heritage Foundation said it would cost an average family of four $1,870. EPA has yet to predict the cost of the effects of the bill per family.

Over time the government will make the cap smaller as soon as companies have grown accustomed to it, so they can reach the goal of polluting the least amount of greenhouse gases as possible.

The government can take a cap and trade system and apply it to many different programs, so it is not unique to the bill that is in the Senate right now. In fact, there are other cap and trade programs in effect like the Acid Rain Program and Clean Air Interstate Rule.

In the 1990”s, the Acid Rain Program, whose goal is to reduce the amount of sulfur dioxide emissions that cause acid rain, saw 100 percent compliance. The predicted cost of the program per year was $6 billion annually but actually cost between $1.1 to $1.8 billion.