Read This: $7.00 gallon gasoline???

From your link:

This should not be surprising. This is not the only way we will pay for Cap & Trade. Barack said himself, "Utilities will skyrocket", his words. EU has had Cap & Trade in place for several years now, it hasn't done squat but slow down business in Europe and make it MUCH more expensive to do business. Read the article in the link below of how well Cap & Trade is working out for the EU.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...040800758.html

Here is the Youtube video of Barack telling us what Cap & Trade is going to do to our utility prices.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlTxGHn4sH4

People can't say he didn't warn us. THIS is the Bill that has adready passed the House and will be voted on in the Senate very soon.

The absolute highest price I have ever paid for gas was not during Obama's admin., was during Bush's - has everybody already forgot that?

Regardless of what this thread is about, I am not going to read a bill (such as Cap & Trade aka/Climate Bill aka/Energy Bill) before I pay my utilities or fill up my tank - so the bottom line is the cost isn't it? So that is my point. Utilities and gas cost.
You are speculating that it will, and I am just reminding you of what IN FACT has happenend already, and again, not during his administration. A lot people like to speculate the worst case scenario of this adminstration and live off of "what ifs" "could happen" and "could be"; and conveniently forget what has already happened during their administration, in the past.

Well, since the EU has had Cap & Trade in place for years and that IS what has happened, skyrocketing utilities, depressed business and high gas prices, I think I am safe in thinking it will happen here. Plus, Barack's own words in the video that I'm sure you didn't bother to watch.

All I got to say to this is................... Just to make this long enough.

If it decreases pollution, it's worth it. For every opponent that says the EU system doesn't work, there is a proponent that says it does. So, we may just have to try it and see.

I really haven't followed the cap and trade debate much, so I'm confused. What is C&T supposed to accomplish besides putting more money in the hands of government so they can waste it on useless projects and political pay raises, which will thereby increase the costs of gasoline and utilities for the general population?

PS, Oh yeah, isn't Al Gore getting richer over this idea? Like he needs another $ multi-million house or three so that he can live large and gobble up energy, while preaching conservation to the rest of us.

What difference does it make who gets rich over it? Look at recycling, it's one of the most lucrative businesses on the planet right now. Recyclers get paid to take material they used to pay people for when they were "junk dealers"...nearly all of them have their billing done by local governments by attaching their cut to sewer or water bills, then they make even more money by re-selling the stuff.

We've been polluting this planet since the before the dawn of the Industrial Revolution...a generation is going to have to step up and take responsibility for it...why not this one?

Actually, unless they meter individual electrical devices in your home, this is impossible to do.

Electric companies have been changing out meters for many, many years now. It is cheaper for them to put in one they can read remotely than to send out a person to read the meter. Of course this means that people lose their jobs, but that's another topic entirely.

I have noticed that people in Europe take their energy use more seriously than people in the U.S., since they already pay much higher rates. I don't see this as a bad thing. As far as people dieing in their homes in France from the heat, I also noticed that since the climate is generally not as hot as some places in the states, many if not most homes don't have air conditioning. It's not a matter of not affording an electric bill.

You make a very good point, people in this country SHOULD take their energy use more seriously. That I totally agree with.

In Las Vegas, we have been on water rationing for years.
There are rebates given by the Water Company for switching to desert landscaping.

Also, our water bill is in three tiers. The most inexpensive being people that don't use to much. When you reach a certain point of water useage, for the month, the rate goes UP, then for the blatant water hogs when they go over the second tier, the bill skyrockets. I have absolutely no problem with this.
It motivates irresponsible people to conserve.

It is a sad fact of life that many Americans won't conserve unless it hits them in the pocketbook.

The difference it makes is, Al Gore is nothing but a total freaking hypocrite of the highest caliber.

The man has made his fortune to the tune of millions off this global warming hoax all the while he has a gigantic "carbon footprint"

But that is not even the the worst part, Gore is making money off this scam by partnering with companies that will make more millions if and when Cap & Trade passes. If he were a Republican this would be a howling, scream to the heavens, conflict of interest. With Al Gore is no big deal apparently.

And people had the hypocrisy to scream about Cheney and Halliburton. This is Cheney-Halliburton on steriods.

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com...e-legislation/

In the year 2000 when he ran for POTUS, Gore was worth two million dollars, now with his "Green" business, he is now worth 100 million dollars. Not to shabby to increase your net worth TEN times in ten years.

The biggest problem that I have right now with the entire C&T and whatever Obama wants to do to raise gasoline prices up to the same amount they pay in Europe is the timing. Sure, the economic analysts who just look at numbers (because apparently they are paid well enough not to really know what an economic downturn or recession means to us Joe Blows) may say that the recession ended sometime last year. I keep hearing that it's turning around. But in the real middle-class-and-lower world of people who have to work to make ends meet, I sure don't see it. They get excited when the monthly total of new jobs gets to 32,000 but apparently fail to see that the weekly new unemployment claims are in the 400,000 range.

I really hope that no one actually believes that the corporations, including government, are going to just pay for these new taxes and fees and keep the rates the same for the rest of us? Of course they won't! It WILL be passed on to the consumer in one way or another, and likely in multiple ways.

There are so many people who are barely making ends meet right now. Many who are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. Many who aren't doing it at all and just hoping that somehow they can fend off the collection agencies to keep a roof over their head and food on the table. But now is when Obama wants to pass C&T (which will raise costs on the consumer because it will raise costs for the power providers) and raise the price of gasoline to almost double what the highest amount we've ever paid? If all of that happens, whether or not it saves energy, it will destroy many people's lives.

If all of this is such a great plan, then why can't it wait at least(!) a couple more years for the economy to get back on the right track?

This pretty much says it all. We've been putting off any kind of action to control pollution and conserve resources for all manner of reasons, one of the biggest being "waiting for a better time".

Now is as good a time as any. As was once said; "If not us...who? If not now...when?"

We have one of those so-called "smart meters" In fact they had to change them because the original ones were faulty and charged more than they should have. I can go on line and track my usage. "Big Brother Obama" wants to know too.

When utility prices rival mortgage payments it is bad, especially for seniors on fixed, limited incomes.

I really think it should be done like our water bills are in Las Vegas.

The energy hogs should have to pay for their hogishness and the conservers have to pay less.

Interesting. That's how Cap n' trade works. So what's the problem?

That is true. And it is also important to remember that $4/gal gas is largely the cause of our current economic crisis, because it put so many people into financial collapse. $7/gal would double the current recession, and ensure that whoever is in office at the time was not in office, come the next election, as happened to Bush and many other Republicans. I wonder if anyone has forgotten THAT?

It may come down to that. On the other hand, it may not.

See how it works?

Here's a question: Do YOU want to go to Europe and try it? Or are you willing to move to some specific city in the U.S. and participate in an experiment where your energy costs triple?

Having lived in Europe (although not recently), I can say with some certainty that what has been tried there will not work in the U.S. without major changes in our infrastructure, and that would include enormous taxes on gasoline and much lower costs for public transportation. And that's just the beginning.

As a Texas resident, I must say we have a certain amount of experience with radical changes in government. Just as an example, we don't have an income tax. One might make it easier to fund the state...but any legislator who voted for it would lose his next election. The same would be true of a huge raise in energy costs. Again, remember what happened in 2006 and 2008. Much of that anger was over the cost of gasoline.

Really? Is that what you think? Perhaps you would like to educate me on Cap & Trade and show me how that is going to work with our utility prices and the price of gasoline.

This is what it does;

The people that I converse with regularly that live in the EU seem to have little or no problem with it. It is, interestingly, people living OUTSIDE the EU that are pointing and saying "Look at what it's done to the EU".

Oh yeah, it's done wonders for their economy over there, things are just a buzzin'.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE54E4EZ20090515

Just wanted to make a comment on the "energy hogs paying" thing. They just implemented a tiered system this year in the Denver-metro area. They decided on a certain level of electricity usage; if you're under you pay the "normal" rate, if you're over you get dinged with additional charges/penalties. Problem is that they based the "average level" where you don't get surcharged on 1-bedroom and studio apartments, and took an average of those.

I do what I can to conserve electricity for multiple reasons, but looking back over the past 6 months, we've never even been close to 500 kwh, which is their cutoff. We live in a small 2-bedroom/1-bath townhome. I can't imagine how we could possibly get below 500 kwh without cooking in the fireplace and using candlelight instead of the electric lights - and nevermind using the computers or televisions.

Got one here too, and PG&E has been sued for installing faulty ones.

I resent the hell out of all this Big Brotherism. We are living on a fixed income. No one conserves more than we do. We recycle everything, and take it to the recycler and pays us a pittance. We live in an energy-efficient home. We open the windows in hot weather and put on more clothes if it gets cold. We run the AC and heat very little. We can't afford higher energy. And you know what really sets me off is that PG&E has rated our area the same as the coastal communities, where it never gets above 80, and we have 3 months of triple digit temps. So we really get stung, and our utility bills and rates are higher here than in LA, and we are more economically deprived with 18%+ unemployment. It's just not fair at all.

Just as the frog in warming water never sees the problem until it's too late, most Europeans have no concept of how serious their situation is. We on the outside CAN see it.

But some of their silliness spills over to our economy. A good example would be the price of diesel. It used to always be less than gasoline, and usually significantly less, except in the winter when it would go up a little due to the use of what is essentially diesel as heating oil, mainly in the northeast U.S.

Now diesel is consistently 10% more than gasoline. Why? Because there is a huge competition for it from Europe, where it is taxed much less than gasoline, and where diesel cars are much more common than in the U.S. The result? We pay more for everything we buy in the U.S., since the average consumer product has been moved 5 times on diesel trucks and trains before the consumer takes it home.

There are major problems with the idea of Cap and Trade, not the least of which is that the credits being traded may very well be non-existent or fraudulent. Look it up; I wouldn't mislead you on this.