Coal-fired power plants produce a lot of carbon dioxide so they will have to buy a lot of permits. That will drive up the price of electricity while lowering the demand for coal.
West Virginia has 223 mines spread through its three congressional districts employing nearly 35,000 people. The industry pays nearly $2 billion in wages every year with an average salary of almost $63,000.
Like it or hate it, the coal industry is important to West Virginia.
The Wall Street Journal opined Thursday that “certain regions and populations will be more severely hit than others—manufacturing states more than service states; coal producing states more than states that rely on hydro.”
The Journal also says “low-income Americans who devote more of their disposable income to energy, have more to lose than high-income families.”
Congressman John Dingell (D-MI) said during a house committee hearing last April, “Nobody in this country realizes that cap-and-trade is a tax. And it’s a big one.”
There are other concerns about cap-and-trade.
For example, even if the idea works and CO2 levels are reduced, the accompanying climate change will amount to a miniscule decline in the rate of projected temperature increase.
Meanwhile, India and China (the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases) are building hundreds of new coal-fired power plants with no guarantee they will control their carbon emissions.
"Talk is Cheap, it takes money to buy your freedom and the taxman is knocking on the door." from Carnival World by Jimmy Buffett.
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