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cap and trade Archive

Wednesday

20

January 2010

0

COMMENTS

Wednesday

28

October 2009

0

COMMENTS

Not All Businesses Cowing To Administration Bullying

Written by , Posted in Energy and the Environment

Bullying is a favored tactic of this administration.  They’ve set their sights on insurance, pharmaceuticals, and energy, among many others. Don Blankenship of Massey Energy is not intimidated:

The reality, which many Americans may not realize, is that CEOs, presidents and shareholders of publicly traded companies fear that if they are clear in expressing their opinions in opposition to legislation like cap-and-trade, the government of the United States of America will exercise “extra scrutiny” in its regulation of their companies. Certainly, domestic energy companies like Massey can’t withstand much extra scrutiny or retaliatory regulation from the government.

However, the truth is the truth and lies are lies. Neither politicians nor government nor the media can change that. In Spain, an economics professor calculates that green jobs schemes have destroyed more than 110,000 jobs in that country, or 2.2 jobs destroyed for every one created. The CEO of the world’s largest renewable energy company, Eon, is warning the EU that further cuts to CO2 emissions will only raise the cost of energy, putting the region at a competitive disadvantage and driving production overseas.

The truth about global warming alarmists in the business community who say Congress must pass laws immediately to stop the planet from warming is that they are driven more by pursuit of profit than pursuit of science and real atmospheric temperatures. These companies lie for profit and at the expense of American families’ budgets, American’s homeland security, and the quality of the world’s air and water.

You see, they know cap-and-trade will hurt the American economy. That it will cost American jobs. That it will increase our dependency on foreign energy. And yes, they know that it will increase global pollution by moving production to unregulated countries like China. They also know the world is cooling. They know that cap-and-trade won’t lower the earth’s temperature. To those saying otherwise I say simply, “You lie.”

Thursday

15

October 2009

0

COMMENTS

Lobbying For Me, But Not For Thee

Written by , Posted in Energy and the Environment

Only certain interests can be respectably represented in Washington.  Unions are a-okay.  Lawyers get the stamp of approval when it comes to lobbying.  But businesses? Why, that’s gotta be criminal.

The Chamber of Commerce rightly opposes destroying our economy on the moronic assumption that we can prevent “climate change.”  In response, the left has gone completely batty.  They latched on to several prominent business defections as evidence that the Chamber is out of touch with environmental issues and to just generally attack the Chamber.  What they don’t note is that the companies in question support cap-and-trade because they stand to make billions off of it at the expense of everyone else. This is rent-seeking at its worst, but the left holds it up as an example of model corporate governance.

Now they’ve gone a step further and are calling for criminal investigations. A coalition of anti-business lefties called StopTheChamber whines that, “The Chamber is spending over $100 million to defeat new initiatives to reform the banking and health care industries and oppose legislation to curb global warming.” For this terrible crime of opposing statism, StopTheChamber wants criminal prosecutions. Clearly they must not only be opposed; they must be destroyed.

Friday

26

June 2009

0

COMMENTS

UN Stumbles Upon Some Truth

Written by , Posted in Energy and the Environment, Free Markets

Coming as a pleasant surprise, the UN reported today that open trade and economic growth helps, rather than hurts, the environment.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, further liberalization of international trade can help combat climate change and support a low carbon economy, said a joint United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Trade Organization (WTO) report launched today in Geneva.

The “Trade and Climate Change” report stressed that an increase and opening of trade could have a positive impact on greenhouse gases emissions by accelerating the spread of clean technology and providing opportunities for developing economies to adapt those technologies.

Many of us have always challenged the “conventional wisdom” on economic growth – that it was destructive to the environment.  The reality is quite the opposite, as new technology is almost always cleaner than the old; so the faster new technology is adopted, the better.  If Barack Obama and the Democrats are serious about their goal of thwarting global warming, they should dump trade protectionism and their economically destructive cap and trade bill.