Europe's carmakers face massive hit from over-the-top CO2 rules | The Detroit News | detnews.com

As car sales crater and manufacturers cut output, lay off workers and slash prices to try and retain some semblance of viability, the European Union plans to saddle the industry with huge cost increases because it wants to change the climate.

These new rules would stop the industry selling its most profitable vehicles, force it to spend money making econoboxes nobody wants to buy, and all in the name of curbing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), which many reputable scientists say have no proven link with a changing climate.
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If this kind of action was likely to save the world from catastrophic climate change, it would be irresponsible to object. But this consequence is disputed. Atmospheric physicist and human-induced global warming skeptic Dr. S. Fred Singer, founder of the Arlington, Va.-based Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP), doesn't think we have the power to change the climate.

"The impact on climate is negligible, not detectable. Even the impact on CO2 levels is negligible," said Singer, asked to comment on the likely impact of the proposed new EU rules.
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When inflated bills plop onto citizens' doormats across Europe, the arguments about the extent of human involvement in climate change are liable to reignite.

"Is current global warming due to natural or human causes," Singer asked in a recent SEPP editorial.

"This crucial question can be settled only by examining the evidence, both pro and con. We conclude that Global Warming is mostly natural -- hence unstoppable -- and that policies to limit CO2 emissions are pointless and inimical to rational policies to supply low-cost and secure energy," he said.

This view hardly warrants a mention in the mainstream media, but there are many highly qualified climate scientists who share Singer's doubts: Professor Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor Pat Michaels of the University of Virginia, and Philip Stott, emeritus professor of biogeography at the University of London, to name but a few.

But clearly the view that excessive CO2 emissions are warming the climate is the conventional wisdom.

Green groups like Brussels based Transport & Environment lauded the move to stand firm at 43 mpg by 2012, but instead of saying this was a victory for the climate, concentrated on the possible savings for consumers. They didn't see any problems for the manufacturers in complying.