Is President Obama Folding on His Promise to Make Corporations Pay to Pollute?

[ThomCat]

http://enviroknow.com/thesource/2009/06/01/is-president-obama-folding-on-his-promise-to-make-corporations-pay-to-pollute/

The Polluter Pays Principle (PPP) is an environmental policy principle which requires that the costs of pollution be borne by those who cause it. In its original emergence the Polluter Pays Principle aims at determining how the costs of pollution prevention and control must be allocated: the polluter must pay.

Unfortunately, after using the logic behind the principle to his political advantage during the campaign, President Obama is now wavering on his promise to fight for it to be incorporated into law.

On October 8th, 2007, as the Democratic primary was taking shape, then-candidate Barack Obama staked out a position to the left of his opponents on energy policy by calling for a 100% auction of all pollution emissions permits (emphasis mine):

On March 3rd, OMB Director Peter Orszag told the House Energy and Commerce Committee the inconvenient truth about giving pollution permits to corporations absolutely free of charge: If you didn’t auction the permits it would represent the largest corporate welfare program that has ever been enacted in the history of the United States. All of the evidence suggests that what would occur is that corporate profits would increase by approximately the value of the permits.



So, now Obama is saying that making corporations pay can't be done. We can give them unlimited money, but we can't charge them, fine them, regulate them, or do anything else that might make them upset. They are too powerful and Obama is too weak, or no longer willing, apparently. So instead of making corporations pay for pollution, Obama's fallback position is another huge corporate welfare program?

Paying them billions of dollars to pretend that they are doing something about pollution is now this administration's solution?

:wtf:

[grannie4peace]

1. i hope the hell not!!!!