Will the EPA’s cap and trade work?

What do the new climate rules have to do with my kid’s asthma?

This article raises a great question: will the EPA’s cap and trade program work? Although the regulations state that we should have a 30% drop in carbon emissions by 2030, a hard target is not stated. There is no “punishment” stated for states that do not comply and nothing is said about what will happen if we do not reach that target. The reduction depends not only on how well states comply but also how well power plants comply.  Furthermore, due to the nature of the ‘cap and trade’, the reduction of emissions may not lead to cleaner air across the board. If companies who want to pollute more can “trade” air space with cleaner companies who don’t need it, those areas will stay just as polluted as they were before. This is a big problem for Environmental Justice as the communities in polluted areas have a much greater risk of health problems and the majority of those communities are compromised of minority groups.

Although the Climate Change initiative is a great idea there are a few flaws. First of all changing habits is hard. It will take awhile for people and companies to actually get on board with the changes. Secondly, the regulations were put in place by an Executive Order. I doubt they will be finalized before Obama leaves administration and then it is up to the next president to decide if he wants to continue the push for change or not.

However, I think what Obama did was the right thing. Many people will make the argument that it wasn’t “constitutional” but something had to be done and it had to be done quick. The way Obama’s relationship with Congress is right now, nothing was going to get accomplished if he tried to put it through Congress.