Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The two approaches to dealing with global warming
My policy prescription:

Abandon the corrupt Waxman Markey legislation.

Replace it with a modest carbon tax and tougher mileage standards for cars.
...
And don't mention CO2 when pushing any of this. We will need Republican votes to push this through, and all of the above make good sense, even if we are heading into an Ice Age.
Slow Learners, Part 168 - Chris Horner - Planet Gore on National Review Online
CEI founder and president Fred Smith tells of the bounty placed on cobras by the British colonial governors in India as a way to eradicate the deadly pests. Soon, cobras by the multitude were being brought in for redemption, as the Indians had figured out thaty they ought to start breeding the creatures. Policy experiment: failed.

We have received a more recent reminder of this lesson from the Chinese, who ramped up their production of hyper-powerful greenhouse gases, HFCs, after Kyoto put a bounty on the things from exempt countries via its "Clean Development Mechanism." Soon enough, Europeans were flocking to the Chinese with bags of money — pleading to exchange the cash in return for pieces of paper representing "emission reductions" (pause, wait for laughter). Behold the glory of Kyoto! Why, I suggest we renew and join the thing ourselves!
Gov. Schwarzenegger Calls for Drilling off Santa Barbara Coast - by Bonner R. Cohen - Environment & Climate News
Facing a widening budget deficit in the midst of a deepening recession, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has proposed tapping into a rich source of oil and natural gas near Santa Barbara to help alleviate the Golden State’s growing economic woes.
Iowa Senator Grassley on Waxman-Markey
But I can tell you, an overview of mine is that it's going to be very detrimental to the economy of the United States if we pass a bill and the other countries of the world don't follow along -- and I have my doubts if they will follow along.

And that's why I think it ought be done by international agreements so that China has to meet the same deadlines that we do. Otherwise we're going to lose all of our manufacturing -- or manufacturing jobs to China because it'll be cheaper for our manufacturing to go over there than to pay the stiff fees on energy that they'll have to pay here, which is what we call cap-and-trade -- which is another way of saying it is a cap-and-trade tax.
[Does Hillary Clinton really believe in Al Gore's global warming fraud?] - POLITICO.com
As administration priorities, she identifies:

— "reverse the spread of nuclear weapons, prevent their use and build a world free of their threat;

— "isolate and defeat terrorists and counter violent extremists while reaching out to Muslims around the world;

— "encourage and facilitate the efforts of all parties to pursue a comprehensive peace in the Middle East;

— "pursue global economic recovery and growth — by strengthening our own economy, advancing a robust development agenda, expanding trade that is free and fair and boosting investment that creates decent jobs;

— "combat climate change, increase energy security and lay the foundation for a prosperous clean-energy future; support and encourage democratic governments that protect the rights of and deliver results for their people; and

— "stand up for human rights everywhere."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"..a modest carbon tax.." beware of 'Two Steps Forward One Step Back' - this dance has been a successful strategy for liberals to ram through so much of the environmental madness that is already law. Why on earth should a nation that has trillions (!) of barrels of shale oil waiting to be exploited, that has more oil untapped in Alaska than in all of Saudi Arabia, why should anybody want to create an artificial energy crisis?
And EVEN MORE important than the cost of a tax, is that it requires a whole new bureaucracy in order to correctly tax every individual - a guise to create a control grid that intrudes into (and eventually interferes with) every aspect of our lives.