May 17, 2009

76% of Americans have no clue what cap-and-trade means

Rasmussen Reports' new survey has revealed a huge disconnect between the American people and the Obama administration's proposed cap-and-trade climate change legislation.

The survey asked respondents to pick the subject area that the proposed cap-and-trade legislation will deal with: Environment, Health Care Reform, or Wall Street Regulation. A stunning 76% of the respondents were unable to select the correct Environment option. 30% of those surveyed stated that they had 'no idea', while 29% believe that cap-and-trade is a Wall Street regulation mechanism. Health care reform was the choice for 17%.

While the intent of the cap-and-trade legislation is to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases in the USA, there is a considerable amount of skepticism that the proposed bill will have a detrimental effect on the already weakened economy. For individual citizens, the most noticeable impacts of cap-and-trade may be inflated prices for electricity and energy (which is also expected to trickle down to impact prices of food and other consumer goods).

The Waxman-Markey Clean Energy and Security Act (the 'cap-and-trade bill') has the potential to permanently alter the American economic landscape. Hopefully the Obama administration will act to reverse the woeful job it has done to date in preparing the American people for this potential carbon-oriented policy.

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Image: Caveman 92223 at flickr under a CC License