In order to insure that the United States electricity market will decrease its emissions of polutants, Senator Obama has proposed to introduce a more strict tax on carbon emissions and the emission of green house gasses. This economic prerogative is sure to increase the efficiency of power plants in the United States. However, senator Obama also once stated that with the new emissions taxes in place, “if some one wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. Its’ just that its going to bankrupt them because their going to be charged a huge sum for all that green house gas that’s being emitted.” In this way Senator Obama will, if elected, begin to tighten his iron fist of economic prerogative.
The plan for the energy policy of America that Barack Obama has laid out includes the production of new coal-powered plants. The exact specifications from the Barack Obama campaign web site state, “Obama’s Department of Energy will enter into public private partnerships to develop five “first-of-a-kind” commercial scale coal-fired plants with clean carbon capture and sequestration technology.” (Obama For America) This project allows for the Obama administration to choose which Power plants will be created, and with the tax on emissions any other power plant that is opened independently will in the words of senator Obama “bankrupt” who ever builds it.
The combination of these two policies allows the government to choose, with in the power industry, which companies will fail and which ones will be successful. To call this system of governance capitalism is a fallacy because of the governments all powerful control of the market, but it not correct to call it socialism either because the means of production are privately owned and government subsidized. However, this system does allow the government to amass government control over the energy market from the federal level.
Ostensibly the reason for the format of the Obama campaign’s energy policy is his interest in reducing America’s impact on global warming, and it is likely that it is his main goal with this policy. None the less, Obama’s plan also will allow him to stage a permanent revolution of his own, and to cull the economic prerogative of the free market and place it in government control.
Works Cited
Obama for America. "New Energy for America." Barack Obama and Joe Biden: The Change We Need New Energy for America. Obama for America. 4 Nov. 2008 http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/newenergy_more#jobs
"Obama Told SF Chronicle He Would 'Bankrupt' the Coal Industry." Little Green Foot balls - Obama Told SF Chronicle He Would 'Bankrupt' the Coal Industry. 2 Nov. 2008. Little green footballs. 4 Nov. 2008 http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/31780_obama_told_sf_chronicle_he_would_bankrupt_the_coal_industry.
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