THE DEATH OF "KYOTO"

An excerpt from "National Review" -- not online:

In Buenos Aires this month, the proponents of the Kyoto Protocol danced their last tango. The treaty, designed to slow the emission of greenhouse gases, effectively died during a U.N. conference there. The treaty will not be ratified by enough countries to take effect, and will expire in 2012. The New York Times and green groups predictably painted the United States as a villain for obstructionism. But it was the Europeans, the principal agitators for Kyoto, who were out of step. At the beginning of the conference, China, India, and the rest of the developing world stood with the U.S. and Australia against limits on energy use. The developing world knows rising energy use is required for its ascent from poverty. Then Italy shocked the participants by announcing its intention to withdraw from Kyoto after 2012. The Italian environment ministers have concluded rightly that Kyoto simply can't work to achieve its stated goals.

The remainder of the meeting took a more constructive turn, as participants focused on building "adaptive capacity" - wealth, infrastructure, technology - to handle any future climate change. To his list of accomplishments as Time's Man of the Year, add George W. Bush's assertion at the beginning of his presidency that the Kyoto Protocol was "fatally flawed." It took three years to sink in, but much of the rest of the world has now come around to his view.




STATE-BASED NONSENSE

Despite the fact that in 1997 the Senate rejected global warming policies that exclude developing nations and harm the U.S. economy (Kyoto does both) by a vote of 95-0 (S. Res. 98) the issue is very much alive here in the United States. At the federal level, Sens. McCain and Lieberman introduced The Climate Stewardship Act (S.139), which would severely cut energy emissions by capping CO2 emissions at 2000 levels by 2010, costing the American economy $106 billion. Fortunately, the bill was not voted on and was referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. Yet Sen. McCain held a hearing on global warming on November 16th, where he attacked the Bush administration's position on global warming. The president continues to oppose Kyoto, but says he wants to focus on domestic plans that include researching alternative forms of energy.

As the debate rages on in Washington, individual states are taking action to limit CO2 emissions on their own, creating a backdoor for possible Kyoto-style regulations. California has already adopted rules to regulate car emissions linked to global warming, adding an estimated $3,000 to the price of every car according to manufacturers. The Golden State also joined with Oregon and Washington to create another group called the West Coast Governor's global warming initiative.

Perhaps the biggest move towards regulation is in the Northeast. Nine states in the region (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont) formed The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), and Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia are observers in the process. The organization, started by Governor Pataki, aims to enact a cap-and-trade program for power plants in the region. Their goal is to have a program designed by 2005 that allots emissions credits to power providers that they can buy or sell to each other. RGGI plans on regulating other sources of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions in the future.

What's more, some states are also turning towards legal action to limit CO2 emissions. Attorneys general from eight states (California, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin) as well as New York City filed a public nuisance lawsuit against five parties because of greenhouse gases (American Electric Power Co., Southern Co., Xcel Energy, Cinergy, and the Federal Tennessee Valley Authority). They make up about 10 percent of America's CO2 emissions. These junk lawsuits are an attempt to use the courts to address an issue that should be dealt with by the legislature. If the suits are successful, America may face a de facto CO2 emissions regime.

Surely, these state-level initiatives will hurt businesses nationally. One RGGI official said that state-level initiatives create calls for federal regulation, comparing their effort to national nitrogen oxide emissions. Businesses may even push for national limits because of the costs of complying with a patchwork quilt of state regulations. Some businesses are even voluntarily limiting their CO2 emissions in order to comply with anticipated state level regulation and avoid legal action. At some point, these companies may call for mandatory standards, which would impose new costs on their rivals.

This backdoor approach to regulation would certainly slow American growth and give the state more control over the private sector. Carbon dioxide restrictions would drastically increase the cost of energy, which goes into every good produced. That's why FreedomWorks is fighting alongside other grassroots organizations like United for Jobs against these initiatives, state by state, and supports including all major producers of CO2 in any and all international discussions.

More here

***************************************

Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Comments? Email me here. My Home Page is here or here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there are mirrors of this site here and here.

*****************************************