Cap-and-trade will raise rural electric costs more

The proposed "cap-and-trade" plan the Obama administration has in mind to limit greenhouse gases blamed for global warming is likely to cost rural areas more than urban, because rural electric cooperatives rely heavily on coal. The problem could be further aggravated by the fact that rural Americans, by-and-large, use more energy. (Center for American Progress map shows states ranked by carbon emissions)

"Obama didn’t just roll the cap-and-trade plan out after his election," reports Douglas Burns of the Caroll Times Daily Herald in Iowa, for the Daily Yonder. "He said in his campaign (which involved nearly a year of practical part-time residency in Iowa) that he would cap greenhouse emissions and create what amounts to a carbon trading market. The plan envisions reducing greenhouse gases 83 percent (from 2005 levels) by 2050."

"The greatest inequities are geographic and would be imposed on the parts of the U.S. that rely most on manufacturing or fossil fuels — particularly coal, which generates most power in the Midwest, Southern and Plains states,” The Wall Street Journal opined. "It's no coincidence that the liberals most invested in cap and trade — Barbara Boxer, Henry Waxman, Ed Markey — come from California or the Northeast."

The cap-and-trade system has its supporters. "Because carbon emissions will be in what amounts to a commodity market, advocates of cap-and-trade say its mere presence will encourage innovations to reduce greenhouse gases at their source and promote more alternative energy investments by utilities and businesses," writes Burns. (Read more)