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Within the past two years, at least seven peer-reviewed studies published in the scientific literature have concluded that the influence of doubling the amount of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere is likely to be substantially lower than IPCC has determined and have ruled out the high-end projections.
“Greedy Lying Bastards producers spent nearly $2 million to complain about climate skeptic money, in yet another Big Green attack on anyone who disagrees with the climate fanatic industry which is, itself , a multi-billion-dollar enterprise that seeks to impose anti-energy policies in the name of preventing climate change.”
From a social cost perspective, carbon taxes are, by nature, regressive, meaning that they inflict largest pain burdens upon low-income households. As Marlo Lewis observes, this presents a “Catch-22” dilemma for any Republicans. If on one hand, they offer to support a carbon tax in exchange for cuts in corporate or capital gains taxes, they will be accused of seeking to benefit the rich at the expense of the poor. On the other hand, any “carbon dividends” paid out to offset higher energy price burdens on poor households will create a new class of welfare dependents …a costly consequence for the general public that Democrats are much less inclined to worry about.
Although “climate” is generally associated with periods of at least three decades, less than one and one-half decades following mid-1970s “scientific” predictions that the next Ice Age was rapidly approaching, the media trumpeted a new and opposite alarm…a man-made global warming crisis.
Unless you happen to get all your news from the mainstream media, you will undoubtedly recognize that by “Climategate”, I’m referring here to the thousands of leaked email communications between prominent international researchers within the U.K.’s University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) network.
A 2011 U.S. Chamber of Commerce report titled “Project/No Project” found 140 renewable projects that had stalled, stopped, or been outright killed due to “Not in My Back Yard” (NIMBY) environmental activism and a system that allows limitless challenges by opponents.
It’s very apparent that the real intent is to make oil and gas more expensive in order to make the heavily subsidized, unreliable and costly ”renewable” energy programs they are pushing more cost-competitive. This is the Tonya Harding approach to energy… break your opponent’s kneecap if you can’t win fair and square.
Is it just me? Or do you detect some eco-sanctimonious hypocrisy in much of the “save the planet” anti-fossil crusading that is going around as well?
Rep. Luetkemeyer’s bill would prohibit future U.S. funding for the alarmist Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and also for the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a scam devoted to redistributing American wealth in penance for our unfair capitalist free market prosperity. The rationale is that the IPCC has compromised its credibility beyond repair —
One of the most successful Sue and Settle strategies cited in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce study “… has been on an issue few in Washington or around the nation are paying attention to: regional haze requirements under the Clean Air Act.” The Chamber study’s author, William Yeatman, concluded that: “… no state is immune from having its rightful Regional Haze authority trampled by EPA at profound costs for virtually nonexistent benefits.”
What redemptive solutions are urgently implored to combat this phantom “global warming,” or rather, “climate change”? We must give lots of money to the UN to redistribute; abandon fossil fuel use in favor of heavily subsidized but assuredly abundant, “free”, and “renewable” alternatives; and expand federal government growth, regulatory powers, and crony capitalist-enriched political campaign coffers.
Much of the scary climate stuff gleefully trumpeted by the global media comes from the UN’s IPCC, a highly politicized organization that does not actually carry out any original climate research. Instead, it simply issues assessments based upon supposedly independent surveys of published research. However, some of its most influential conclusions that are summarized in its reports have neither been based upon truly independent research, nor properly vetted through accepted peer- review processes.
Former AFL-CIO executive Mark Ayres: “The Keystone Pipeline represents the prospect for 20,000 immediate jobs, and as many as 500,000 indirect jobs [just in the U.S.] via a strong economic multiplier effect.”
“At current melt rates, the Greenland ice sheet would take about 13,000 years to melt completely, which would result in a global sea level rise of more than 21 feet (6.5 meters).”
Massachusetts residents are really getting the shaft from wind power. Thanks to the state’s Green Communities Act of 2000, customers may see their energy rates rise from 8 cents to 31.3 cents per kilowatt-hour over the next 15 years.
It appears evident that our nation’s abundant
supply of natural gas in combination with practical advantages afforded most
particularly for LNG long-haul trucking applications will continue to become
more and more attractive over time, expanding the infrastructure and driving
down vehicle production costs through economies of scale.
A suit filed in federal court charges the Environmental Protection Agency with conducting illegal and potentially lethal experiments on hundreds of financially needy people who were paid $12/hour without even informing them of risks. Based upon thousands of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, procedures undertaken since 2004 and continuing through the Obama administration exposed subjects at the University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine to very high levels of toxic air pollutants.
The plug-in car energy-saving argument is running out of juice. A September Congressional Budget Office Report has concluded that all that spending “…will have no impact on the total gasoline use and greenhouse gas emissions of the nation’s vehicle fleet over the next several years.” It also found that even with the $7,500 tax credits we taxpayers generously provided to purchasers, electric cars are still a bad buy, costing owners far more over the life of the car than traditional gas-powered vehicles.
Maybe it has been a smart idea for the Democrats to go a bit light on the president’s record on climate and energy achievements after all, and concentrate their message on really critical matters…like switching from subsidies for green energy to subsidies for Sesame Street and contraceptives for female law students. And hey, why not let the planet heal itself just as it always has, even before Obama took charge?
There’s a lot more at stake for America on November 6th than Sesame Street or free contraceptives for female grad students. Like, for example, whether or not anti-carbon regulatory obstructionism based upon flawed science and crony politics will continue to escalate energy costs, kill jobs, and sabotage success-proven free market competition.