The biggest reason liberals failed to get the Senate to pass the Lieberman-Warner mandatory carbon emission cap bill was because they failed to convince the American people that the economic harm carbon caps would cause were worth the meager and mostly symbolic benefits. Since very few analysts believe the price of energy will be any lower in 2009, the left faces certain failure should they try a legislative fix again next year.
Enter the California model. Last week the California Air Resources Board (CARB) unveiled its plan to reduce California’s current carbon emissions by 10% by 2020. The plan regulates all parts of California’s $1.6 trillion economy affecting refineries, farmers, manufacturers and even forest managers. In order for the plan to work, the CARB would have to cut 169 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year by 2020. One of the first steps the plan takes in this direction is $50 million in fees levied on “large polluters” to cover the administrative costs of the up coming central planning.
The genius of the plan is its completely undemocratic nature. The plan is open for comment through the summer, but the CARB is not bound to incorporate any possible objections from Californians when the plan becomes final this November. Unlike U.S. senators, no member of the CARB ever has to face voters since they are all appointed by the governor. Shielded from voters, the CARB is free to be exceedingly vague about how it will meet such ambitious goals. The plan offers no details on the costs it will inflict on industry. While power plants account for only 25% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, the plan counts on energy suppliers to make 35% to 40% of the carbon reductions. The CARB failed to assess any costs borne by industry, instead citing a single “macroeconomic analysis” that claims the entire plan would increase California’s GDP by 1% when the plan was fully put into place.
That analysis is completely specious considering how few of the actual details have been worked out. So far, the plan is completely agnostic on whether the CARB will auction or giveaway carbon emission permits. A decision to auction the permits would inflict billions of dollars in transition costs on high carbon producing industries. Also completely undecided is whether or how many international carbon offsets Californians will be able to purchase to help meet their caps. The CARB has even indicated that if their carbon permit plan fails to reduce emissions, they reserve the right to institute a carbon tax.
The scariest part about the California plan is that the foundation for a repeat at the federal level has already been laid. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the Environmental Protection Agency will release a document later this week that could become “the legal roadmap for regulating greenhouse-gas emissions in the U.S.” Using the Clean Air Act, lawyers at the EPA claim they have the authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions. Such a decision would unleash a regulatory Pandora’s Box, vesting the EPA with vast control over the entire economy. Worse yet, when regulating pursuant to the Clean Air Act, the EPA is forbidden to take into account the economic costs of their regulations.
Quick Hits:
- According to Rasmussen Reports, the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a handgun boosted the court’s job approval by 8%.
- According to Gallup, 84% of Americans prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.
- The National Association of Home Builders spent $1.3 million in the first quarter of 2008 alone trying to get Congress to bail out mortgage lenders.
- At least 29 governments, including China, Vietnam and Bolivia, have limited or banned food exports, making it harder for impoverished countries to afford food.
- About half of the 42 states that have lotteries keep selling scratch-off tickets after the top prizes have already been given out.
Who gets charged for those green house gases released into the air from all those wild fires in California? And are the wild fires on board to reduce emissions? Maybe Arnold can cap and trade for his Hummer emissions.
I enjoy all the articles in email that I receive and appreciate all your hard work. However, you format of print puts me off. My time is limited and I wish that y'all could come up with a more attractive page. It's hard to read and takes to long. Break it up more and use more graphics. I'm sorry but that it's like reading a book, you need more variety to catch our attention. Nothing wrong with the content, please believe. Just do something to liven up the page and make me want to read the …………….whole page.
God help us! I feel that this nation is like the Titanic. The democrats on the left are like the iceberg that the Titanic struck. Everyone cries for help but the ship goes down. So will this nation.
So how do we put a stop to this lunacy? Al Gore, his fellow scam artists and his lunatic minions have created this hypothetical monster called the Anthropogenic Global Warming catastrophe that can only be resolved by these pseudo intellectual, pinhead, militant environmentalists and their totally feckless "solutions" to a non-problem. And our elected officials, eager to get on the "save the planet" bandwagon, continue to pander to these people instead of slapping them down and saying, "thanks but no thanks." We are headed for an economic and national security disaster that we may never recover from. Is there anybody in a position to do something about this aware of what's happening here? Writing letters to elected officials and signing petitions does not seem to be getting anything but "canned" responses supporting these idiotic policies and proposals.
I totally agree with those who call all these so called "carbon emission experts" scam artists. Al Gore could not get elected dog catcher, so, he manufactured this insane problem and is getting rich as a result. All the biggest proponents of this are the biggest polluters of all still using their private jets! This country is going to **** in a handbasket if this continues! Is there anything we can do? I plan to not vote for any incumbents in the upcoming election in order to try to clean house in Washington. If more people would do this we might get more sanity up there!
The Chamber Post had a chart of what S-2191 or the Lieberman/Warner bill was proposing. You think that was scary. Look at what happened when Boxer jumped on board. I feel by keeping ourselves informed on what bills are being concocked,calling our congress and senate and letting them know how we feel does make a difference. I called everyday before that bill went up for a vote.
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