While some industries and a few environmental groups say that trading is the only ‘politically viable’ approach, what is really going on is the largest polluters and banking interests are standing in line to collect enormous profits for free from this new ‘market.’ For example, the New York Times reported:

“A rapidly growing number of American companies are preparing for what they think will be a booming market after [trading] rules are approved. “The U.S. market will be the mother lode of carbon trading, so we want to start setting up our brand now,” said Marc Stuart, director of new business development at EcoSecurities.

“EcoSecurities, which has spent seven years investing in the reduction of greenhouse gases in Europe, is setting up a New York office to expand into the United States. Similarly, Morgan Stanley plans to spend almost $3 billion to trade carbon credits on greenhouse gases over the next five years.”

But don’t be fooled. We, collectively, decide what is politically viable—not polluters, bankers, and deal-makers. (see my blog post for more on that). The fact of the matter is The Congressional Budget Office, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times , and conservative economists at the American Enterprise Institute favor a carbon tax. The Wall Street Journal opined “[t]he emerging alliance of business and environmental special interests may well prove powerful enough to give us cap-and-trade in CO2… it would make money for some very large corporations. But don't believe for a minute that this charade would do much about global warming.” Tom Redburn, of the New York Times, supports a carbon tax as does New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who is actively advocating for a carbon tax saying, “I think it’s time we stopped listening to the skeptics who say, ‘But for the politics,’ and start being honest about costs and benefits.”

Al Gore supported a carbon tax in his Oslo speech when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, saying “[a]nd most important of all, we need to put a price on carbon -- with a CO2 tax that is then rebated back to the people” I could go on and on with this list, but the point is these are NOT hot-headed, wild-eyed, unreasonable, community activists. The clear and well known—but unacknowledged—fact is the Kyoto Accord trading scheme hasn’t addressed emissions in the EU. We don’t have the time to hope, against hope, that we can make it work here. We intend to put the facts in everyone’s hands and in their faces. Our communities have too much at stake for us to sit by.