The principle of Cap-and-Trade is injecting “carbon credits” into the market, setting regulations as too the level of emissions a company can use. The credits then become the basis of trading in which larger companies try to buy off credits from smaller companies to sustain larger emissions. This is essentially a “free market reward” to those businesses polluting less.

Southeast and Southwest Virginia are going to take it on the chin should this legislation pass, and Webb knows it. They’ll be devasted from an economic standpoint, leaving NoVA, Richmond, and the surviving pieces of Hampton Roads left to financially offset (even more than they already do)these already struggling regions of the state.