Obama’s Call for Green

When I heard President Barack Obama's call for cap-and-trade legislation last night, I nearly sang for joy. For years economists and environmentalists have been advocating a law that would put a price on carbon emitted into the atmosphere, and to hear the president announce that it is time to implement such a standard is music to our ears.

"To truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America,” he said.

Associating a cost with polluting the air with carbon could provide the U.S. government with $15 billion in revenue, which could then be used to develop renewable technologies, reported the New York Times. For a more in-depth view of how a cap-and-trade system would work, check out Audubon’s breakdown.