Hear, hear!

In a speech in New Hampshire, Mr. Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois, called for imposing a national cap on carbon emissions, investing $150 billion over 10 years to develop new energy sources and reducing dependence on foreign oil by 35 percent by 2030.

“No business will be allowed to emit any greenhouse gases for free,” Mr. Obama said in Portsmouth, N.H. “Businesses don’t own the sky, the public does, and if we want them to stop polluting it, we have to put a price on all pollution.”

Obama's thoughtful proposal is in sharp contrast to George Bush, whose endlessly-repeated call for voluntary reductions in emissions willfully and ignorantly ignores the fact that big corporate polluters feel a much greater responsibility to their next earnings report than to the public at large, and thus will only curb pollution if it doesn't cost too much. And, admittedly, reducing emissions is an expensive proposition, so don't expect industry to willfully do so on its own. But fighting global warming is something that must be done, regardless of the cost, and it's those companies that produce the greatest amount of pollution that are going to have to bear much of the financial burden.

Sometimes, corporations and people can't be counted on to do the right thing, and have to be told what to do. And this is one of those times. Mandatory limits on emissions are the way to go, and should have been instituted long ago.