How do companies emit greenhouse gases / how can alternative energy be applied?

Question

I was recently discussing with someone the possibility of the government installing a cap-and-trade system on American companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I said that would be a baby step in the right direction, however I think we need a stricter solution, such as the development and eventually mandated uses of alternative energy (solar power, wind and tide energy, for example) instead. However, I was wondering if this is even applicable to the topic at hand? What processes exactly do happen within companies to emit so much greenhouse gas? And, could alternative energy even be substituted for the original methods of production?

Answer 1

One of the reasons this is difficult is that companies do a lot of different things that produce greenhouse gasses (and so do individuals).

Just to name a few:

- Heat buildings and furnaces

- Operate many, many different kinds of machinery

- Drive vehicles short distances

- Drive vehicles across the country

- Operate ships and airplanes

A solution that works well for one of these purposes usually doesn't work well for others.  So we keep coming up with solutions for individual problems.  And make a little progress.

Answer 2

The problem is that alternative energies such as the ones you mentioned either don't produce enough energy, or require MASSIVE monetary investment (enough to drive many companies broke) to produce viable amounts of power. Greenhouse emissions mainly come from automotive fleets and from smokestacks. In many cases such as a coal or oil power plant, or a tire factory cannot really use that much less CO2 producing materials.

Trust me, if it made a shred of economic sense to "go green" people would do it. Same goes for recycling. Recycling is a dead loss. You cannot make money off of it (with the exception of aluminum cans). That's why in my Uncle's town, Waste Managment just stores the recyclables in a landfill like any other garbage.