March 16, 2009 – The US Chamber of Commerce is among the business groups proposing changes to the cap-and-trade plan put forth by President Barack Obama, according to Business Week magazine.
Obama proposes reducing US emissions and raising billions of dollars by auctioning the rights to emit such gases. That means businesses that emit the gases will have to pay to do so.
While there are still fierce opponents of emissions limits, such as the US Chamber of Commerce, much of business is supportive. The Obama Administration “is very close to right on the climate plan,” says John W. Rowe, chief executive of Exelon, a Chicago-based utility.
In theory, a workable cap-and-trade market for carbon emissions would give business executives more certainty about future energy costs, helping them make better investment decisions, says Business Week. .
The real fight, therefore, is not whether to impose carbon limits but how to do so and at what cost to business.
The Obama team points out that its cap-and-trade plan returns much of the money raised by permit sales to consumers nationwide in the form of lower taxes, so many people come out ahead. And the Environmental Defense Fund has created a map of 1,200 alternative energy or energy-efficiency companies in key manufacturing states that stand to benefit from the climate plan.
For more information, see the Business Week article.
