Cap and Trade Is A Conservative Issue Worthy of Support

By Anton Jackson

I support Cap and Trade as an effective market tool to reduce harmful emissions that are causing harmful changes in our climate.

The Republicans led the fight to pass a Cap and Trade program during the Bush administration's Clear Skies Initiative. When it failed to get out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, President Bush used EPA to implement Cap and Trade regulations. Those regulations were ultimately overturned by the courts. The Democrats could not get a Cap and Trade bill passed in Congress and now President Obama is doing the same thing that George Bush did: implementing greenhouse gas emissions Cap and Trade through EPA regulatory fiat. The courts will overturn those regulations too. At least the Obama administration has a basis for their actions from the U.S. Supreme Court. It is funny to watch Senator Inhofe scoff at Cap and Trade now when he led the fight for it in the Senate for the Clear Skies Initiative.

Glenn Beck probably does not have me on his show because he opposes Cap and Trade. Bill O'Reilly opposes Cap and Trade too. Maybe that's why he doesn't invite me too. Yet I am a conservative. A green conservative at that. And conservatives pushed Cap and Trade aggressively under Bush, my third favorite president after President Obama and President Jimmy Carter. Does Glenn Beck only harangue progressives in a futile attempt to undermine President Obama? He should give me equal time. Again, it must be that darned Cap and Trade thing. Yet Cap and Trade is a capitalist marketplace tool to address the climate change issue. Neither Beck nor O'Reilly believes that climate change is a problem. So I guess their anti Cap and Trade and anti climate change issues trump the views of a conservative black green. Gosh darn it.