A New Era of 'Climate [Fraud] Thinking' | Green Business | Reuters

Everyone has a role to play in the transformation to a clean energy economy, from entrepreneurs to innovators, regulators, venture capitalists, policymakers and the financial sector, among others, according to Mary Nichols, who heads the California Air Resources Board.

A future greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system that puts a price on carbon dioxide, she said, will create financial incentives for industries and consumers to find creative ways to reduce emissions.

“So obviously companies that can figure out ways to cost-effectively create products that people want to buy, or things that people need, and do it with the lowest overall lifecycle impact on climate are the big winners in this new economy,” Nichols said Thursday during a keynote speech at the West Coast Summit of the Women's Network for a Sustainable Future in Santa Clara, Calif.

TheHill.com - Waxman-Markey measure portends devastating results

[Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), ranking member on the House Committee on Agriculture]  The cap-and-trade part of this bill will essentially create a national energy tax, and it will do more harm to production agriculture, American industry, and our standard of living than it will do any good for the environment. A national energy tax will impact all of us. If you like being warm in the winter, you are going to be affected. If you like being cool in the summer, you are going to be affected. If you own a farm, if you like to eat, if you run a small business or work in one, you are going to be affected. If you want to go anywhere, this bill will affect you.

From higher energy costs to lost jobs to higher food prices, cap-and-trade promises to cap our incomes, our livelihoods, and our standard of living, while it trades away American jobs and opportunities. For this reason, as this bill stands now, I cannot embrace it.

I am not alone. So far, 34 agriculture groups including the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Farmers and Ranchers, National Corn Growers Association, National Chicken Council, and National Turkey Federation have sent letters to members of Congress encouraging them to oppose the Waxman-Markey bill. Meanwhile, no large farm groups have endorsed it.