Blog Two

WATCO: Passing Cap and Trade in the United States and the impact on world pollution.

Claim: Passing the Cap and Trade law in the United States does not significantly cause less pollution in the world.

Reason: Passing the Cap and Trade law in the United States does not impact countries, like India and China, which have the most output of pollution into the atmosphere and only allows high pollutant companies to relocate to a different company.

Assumption: Whatever does not have an impact on the output of pollution in countries that release the most pollution in the air and allows high pollutant US companies to move to these countries does not significantly decrease pollution in the world.

Points to support my argument
• Companies with high pollution rates will move to other countries which will eventually cost United States citizens more for their goods because there will be an added tax because goods are being imported into the country.
o Middle class Americans will pay more for their goods and the goods they buy will be low quality goods and less quantity goods.
o Middle class Americans will suffer more because the rich can go to other countries and buy goods whereas the middle class Americans will have to buy the goods that are imported into the United States. Again these goods will be low quality goods and Americans will get less quantity of goods.
o China, Mexico and other third world countries will become the America of tomorrow because that is where all of the businesses will move to and where all the valuable goods will be.
• Cap and Trade would overrule the pollution act of 1990 in the United States and so the companies that were limiting pollution according to those standards will move to a different country and pollute as much as they want with no limits, in some countries’ cases.
o Some third world countries have never had to worry about pollution laws or regulations. If large polluting companies move there, pollution will increase substantially.
 It is the same compared to a child eating cake. Before a child’s first birthday, when cake is served they are only given a very small piece, maybe even just a bite or two of cake. The bite or two of cake would be the Pollution Act of 1990. However, on the child’s first birthday, they are given a cake with no limits of how much they can eat. This is the companies that move to other countries without limits or pollution regulations. What happens now? The child devours the cake and eats as much as they can. Likewise, the companies that move to other countries will pollute to their hearts content.
• Even if a country does have a pollution regulation and it is a third world country, without an international law, which is years away, these countries can change their pollution regulations in order to get big businesses to move to their country and make them become a powerhouse.