If you actually read Obama's cap and trade system, he talks about having this implemented fully by the year 2050, 42 years from now. By that time, we will already have many, many alternative sources of energy, which will lower the overall cost of energy.

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/facts...ech_080308.pdf

SHORTTERM
SOLUTIONS: IMMEDIATE RELIEF FROM PAIN AT THE PUMP

Barack Obama and Joe Biden recognize that skyrocketing energy costs are taking a heavy toll on
American families. To address the squeeze on Americans, they are calling for an: emergency energy
rebate; an aggressive plan to crack down on speculators; and a swap of oil from the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve to help provide immediate relief from soaring energy prices.
• Immediately Provide Emergency Energy Rebate. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will require oil
companies to take a reasonable share of their record‐breaking windfall profits and use it to
provide direct relief worth $500 for an individual and $1,000 for a married couple. The relief
would be delivered as quickly as possible to help families cope with the rising price of gasoline,
food and other necessities. The rebates would be fully paid for with five years of a windfall profits
tax on record oil company profits. This relief would be a down payment on the Obama‐Biden longterm
plan to provide middle‐class families with at least $1,000 per year in permanent tax relief.
The Obama‐Biden energy rebates will: offset the entire increase in gas prices for a working family
over the next four months; or pay for the entire increase in winter heating bills for a typical family
in a cold‐weather state. In addition, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have proposed setting aside a
portion of a second round of fiscal stimulus to ensure sufficient funding for home heating and
weatherization assistance as we move into the fall and winter months.
• Crack Down on Excessive Energy Speculation. Current loopholes in Commodity Futures Trading
Commission regulations have contributed to the skyrocketing price of oil on world
markets. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will enact simple legislation to close these loopholes and
increase transparency on the market to help bring oil prices down and prevent traders from
unfairly lining their pockets at the expense of the American people.
• Swap Light and Heavy Crude, Release Oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Cut Prices. The
United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is there for a purpose: to help Americans in
times of crisis. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe the doubling of oil prices in the past year is a
crisis for millions of Americans and the transfer of wealth to oil producing countries, many of
them hostile to our interests, is a threat to our national security. With the goal of bringing down
prices at the pump, they support releasing light oil from the SPR now and replacing it later with
heavier crude more suited to our long‐term needs.