Progressives favor the welfare of society as a whole over liberties of the individual and they see cap and trade as a way to combat the "unfairness" of capitalism by redistributing corporate profits and individual wealth. Further, progressives see cap and trade as the first step towards creating global governance of sovereign nations, including the United States.
"The government should invest (cap and trade) auction revenues in clean, renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency measures. Revenues also could compensate low-income families, provide transition assistance to workers or economic sectors that are disproportionately disrupted by the program, and help communities adapt to the unavoidable effects of global warming." Rachel Cleetus, Union of Concerned Scientists
"As part of sweeping climate change legislation under consideration in Congress, energy companies and utilities will receive hundreds of billions of dollars from the government to help them comply with a new program to regulate greenhouse gases." Bill Beaver, GreenOrder
"Possibly the most troubling aspect of the entire debate against this bill (Waxman-Markey) was the consistent omission by opponents of the costs of doing nothing -- the enormously high and disruptive costs of climate change that an overwhelming majority of the world’s best science tells us we will have to pay if we don’t act now." Mindy S. Lubber
Lubber is president of Ceres, a coalition of investors, environmental groups and other public interest organizations working with companies to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. Ceres launched and coordinates a new business coalition, Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP), which includes Levi Strauss & Co., Nike, Starbucks, Sun Microsystems, Timberland, Aspen Skiing Company, Clif Bar & Company, eBay, Gap Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle, The North Face, Seventh Generation and Symantec.
