Judd Gregg: “I rise on a separate subject that is coming at us that is of even greater significance in many ways because it is going…”

“I rise on a separate subject that is coming at us that is of even greater significance in many ways because it is going to impact the entire structure of the economy and the lives of everyone in the United States, and that is how we get a handle on the issue of global warming and the issue specifically of the emission of toxic materials from plants which generate energy. The term ``cap and trade'' is applied to a bill that is going to be brought forward supposedly in early June. Cap and trade is a concept of basically creating areas where energy companies are required to start reducing their emissions but the manner in which they do so is tied to the trading of rights of basically emissions and what sort of chemicals can be emitted through a trading process between different regions and within different communities of emitters. This cap-and-trade proposal, which is known as the Warner-Lieberman bill, is a huge readjustment of our economy. It represents a massive cost to our economy as well as, hopefully, a massive improvement, if it would work right, in the amount of toxic emissions which we incur and which occur as a result of our production of electricity specifically. The cost of the cap-and-trade program, through the purchasing and selling of allocations of what can be emitted, is estimated to be about $1.2 trillion over the first 10 years of the proposal. This cost, obviously, is going to have a major impact on our economy.”