TOPIC 'Renewable Energy' on Jun 29, 2009 (CEST)
A Climate Bill Worth Fighting For
A certain bill has been fighting its way through house and senate with Obama struggling and pushing behind it. Even with the largely democratic House the bill has only narrowly escaped a premature death at the feet of one part of congress. Outside on the streets people have demonstrated, clinging desperately onto large picket signs, green words and a round world plastered on the front and back crying out, ‘Love Our Mother Earth.’ Yes, that bill, the one that Republicans have been dreading and the world has been waiting for: the energy-climate bill.
Though the bill isn’t quite as perfect as people now-a-days seem to need out of the government it’s a bill definitely worth noticing and looking over. It offers a chance to shift away from fossil fuels by delving deeper into the mechanics of trapping energy from the wind, sun and the earth itself. This bill also introduces the proposition of the “cap-and-trade” idea many have been hearing about.
The idea of “cap-and-trade” establishes a limit on the amount of gases that are released into our atmosphere. Then the Companies that are under the cap will attain permits for their pollution contribution which is like an annual allowance. The bill would start off by giving the majority of the permits for free to help ease the transitions and costs but it still seems to be an effective way to begin shaping out our shift into a more environmentally aware nation because it still imposes limits to said covered companies. If those companies make more pollution than their permit covers they will have to find a way to lower their pollution output or buy permits from other companies that have effectively lowered their pollution output. The last option that these companies have are to invest in an offset, or pollution reduction made somewhere else like planting trees.
This bill transgresses the Republican’s heated counterpoint of lost jobs, simply because with all the new environmental changes there will be a spur of new jobs. A solar power plant needs technicians, the same go for wind plants and we’ll need more construction workers to help make our homes and factories eco-friendly if not eco-efficient. There is much that can help drive our economy forward, that drive the nation forward as one promoting change and awareness.
The only thing this bill asks for is a chance to help, a chance to move forward technologically and environmentally. As President Obama has said in an interview with him about the proposed bill, “We're going to succeed by moving forward. That's what has always been true about America. Nobody ever looks back on American history and says … boy, if folks had just kept things exactly the way they were, America would be wildly successful.”
American wouldn’t and to hesitate in front of the chance to grow and evolve into something more would be a let down to our civilization and our intelligence. Take a deeper look into the bill and its cause, help push it forward and be a part of another chapter in history.
Jason Grace
on behalf of the
BascoTec Internet Limited
Technologie Park 13
33100 Paderborn
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