Power Line - A convenient pretext?

One of the lead stories in the forthcoming City Journal is Peter Huber's blast of common sense on how subsidizing inefficient alternative energies is going to drive big energy users overseas to heavier polluting countries, hurting us economically and actually increasing carbon emissions globally. Huber's article is Bound to burn."
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Huber allows the intelligent reader to apply the reality principle to the harebrained "cap and trade" scheme with which the Obama administration seeks to fund its big government programs and mitigate the purported problem of anthropogenic global warming. Huber's blast of common sense is almost enough to lead one to believe that the latter is a convenient pretext for the former.

AdelaideNow... Advertiser Editorial: Active stake in cutting emissions

FEDERAL Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has an enormous task ahead of her cobbling together a parliamentary majority for the Government's beleaguered Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The proposed scheme has achieved a remarkable feat - outside the Government it has no enthusiastic supporters.

Health care: Higher priority than the Most Important Issue of All Time

Mr. Cooper said health care is ripe for action in part because Congress has already had extensive debates on the issue, going back to the failed Clinton effort in 1994. "You don't have to start from scratch," he said, suggesting that climate change is relatively new to voters and would have a big impact on the economy -- and consumers -- while not producing an immediate benefit for voters. "Climate change doesn't have a lot of great news in it," he said.
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Republicans are attacking the initiative as a tax on consumers, who would face greater energy costs. More problematic, Democrats are divided, especially in the Senate, with manufacturing and coal-state lawmakers resisting aggressive action.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) said climate change and health care remain "high priorities." But he looks at the political landscape and sees stronger interest in health care. "If you had to rank them, health care is probably a little bit higher," he said.