Friday, July 10, 2009

The cap and trade delusion (2)

It would appear that the chances of the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill passing the Senate this year are going down big-time. Three days ago, the Senate Environment Public Works Committee held a hearing at which the EPA administrator said that "unilateral U.S. action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would have no effect on climate."

EPA Administrator Jackson confirmed an EPA analysis showing that unilateral U.S. action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would have no effect on climate. Moreover, when presented with an EPA chart depicting that outcome, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said he disagreed with EPA's analysis.

"I believe the central parts of the [EPA] chart are that U.S. action alone will not impact world CO2 levels," Administrator Jackson said.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) presented the chart to both Jackson and Secretary Chu, which shows that meaningful emissions reductions cannot occur without aggressive action by China, India, and other developing countries. "I am encouraged that Administrator Jackson agrees that unilateral action by the U.S. will be all cost for no climate gain," Sen. Inhofe said. "With China and India recently issuing statements of defiant opposition to mandatory emissions controls, acting alone through the job-killing Waxman-Markey bill would impose severe economic burdens on American consumers, businesses, and families, all without any impact on climate."

This is excellent news for the economy, since this bill would have had very destructive effects (e.g., higher energy costs, more regulatory burdens, more bureaucracy).

3 comments:

ronrasch said...

When voters see the politicians pushing cap&tax and single payer also developed the stimulus package, they will hopefully make some changes in 2110

seekingtraceevidence said...

DR. Art Robinson has a lecture and ppt that counters the carbon emission as the cause of Global Warming. http://www.oism.org/s32p686.htm
This is science well explained.

Donny Baseball said...

Scott-
Good news indeed but as I mentioned in another comment, this is only one of many anti-growth policies that need to hit the skids. Cap and trade would be a thick lash strapping Gulliver down, but there are numerous others we need to be concerned about. It will hardly be a victory if we defeat cap and trade but still get nationalized healthcare, higher taxes, aggressive anti-trust policy, an uber-Finance regulator, taxing of overseas corporate profits, etc. It'll be like Derek Jeter hitting a dinger in the bottom of the ninth yet the Yanks stilll lose the game...