If anyone has any doubt that a cap and trade system will raise the cost of electricity for American consumers, here is a video of Barack Obama (from a conversation with San Francisco Chronicle editors in January of 2008) clearing it up:
Under my plan of a cap and trade system electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, even, you know, regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad, because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal powered plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.