Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 05/18/2008 2:49:26 PM PDT by calcowgirl
Robert B. Bluey is director of the Center for Media & Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation
and maintains a blog at RobertBluey.com
Exactly one year after angering conservatives with an amnesty bill for illegal aliens, Sen. John McCain managed to fire up the right again last week—only this time he’s proposing a massive plan to combat global warming that would have severe consequences for the U.S. economy.
During a West Coast trip to Oregon and Washington state, McCain outlined his global warming strategy, which in many ways resembles legislation offered by Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.). Their plan will be debated on Capitol Hill next month.
Although he’s spent the past several months trying to mend his rocky relationship with conservatives by putting forward a market-based health care plan and vowing to appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court, critics wasted little time going after McCain’s global warming proposal.
It’s not that conservatives don’t care about the environment—they do. But in the case of McCain’s proposal, the benefits—lowering Earth’s temperature by no more than the Kyoto projection of 0.007 degrees Celsius—would come at a great cost to America’s economy.
McCain, who previously teamed with Lieberman to draft global warming legislation, supports a cap-and-trade proposal designed to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 60% from 1990 levels by 2050. He argued that such a system “harnesses human ingenuity in the pursuit of alternatives to carbon-based fuels.”
McCain’s two Democratic rivals, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, support an 80% reduction by mid-century, a recommendation in line with the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Lieberman-Warner bill supposedly would cut emissions by 70% by 2050.
A closer examination of cap and trade reveals the pitfalls of such a system. Even if it works perfectly, which is unlikely, it essentially amounts to a new tax on energy. In its analysis of the Lieberman-Warner bill, the Congressional Budget Office said the legislation would increase federal revenue by $1.21 trillion from 2009 to 2018—money that can best be described as a tax increase.
Several studies of the cap-and-trade proposal reveal its high costs. The Heritage Foundation last week released its analysis of Lieberman-Warner, showing skyrocketing energy costs, millions of jobs lost and falling middle-class income.
“The burden would be shouldered by the average American,” the study’s authors conclude. “The bill would have the same effect as a major new energy tax—only worse. Increases are set by forces beyond legislative control.”
The resulting higher prices for electricity, natural gas and home heating oil would send a typical consumer’s total annual energy bill through the roof—$938.63 more in 2030 than 2012 after adjusting for inflation, according to the Heritage study. Based on Department of Labor data, that equals about six weeks’ worth of groceries for a family of four.
The impact on the overall the economy is even more alarming. The current U.S. economic output of $14 trillion would sharply decline by 2018 because of higher energy prices. Even under the most generous assumptions, the Heritage study estimates cumulative losses to gross domestic product (GDP) would be $1.7 trillion by 2030 after adjusting for inflation. The total could be as high as $4.8 trillion.
Europe’s experience with cap and trade offers the clearest example that it can have a harmful impact on the economy while offering little benefit to the environment. Emissions are growing at a faster rate on the continent since the European Union implemented its program in 2005 to comply with the Kyoto Protocol.
McCain cites the success of the 1990 sulfur dioxide cap-and-trade system as evidence that his plan would work. “The key feature of this mechanism is that it allows the market to decide and encourage the lowest-cost compliance options,” McCain said. However, there are important distinctions between combating acid rain though cap and trade vs. carbon dioxide.
When the acid rain cap-and-trade system was added to the Clean Air Act, the technology to reduce sulfur dioxide was already in commercial use.
There’s nothing comparable for carbon dioxide. The method, known as carbon capture and sequestration, is still in development. Carbon storage, as it’s also called, “requires capturing carbon dioxide from power plants and other industrial facilities, transporting it to suitable locations, injecting it into deep underground geological formations, and monitoring its behavior,” according to the World Resources Institute.
There’s no clear evidence that carbon capture and sequestration will be ready for full-scale commercial use 10 years from now. Without this technology, the goals outlined by McCain and those included in the Lieberman-Warner bill cannot be accomplished.
The so-called “green jobs” that would be created from the legislation are also largely a myth manufactured by activists. While it’s true that a proposal such as Lieberman-Warner would have a short-term benefit over the next five years, annual job losses after 2013 would exceed 500,000—even approaching 1 million in 2016 and 2017.
Manufacturing would be among the hardest hit with 2.3 million lost jobs in 2029 as a result of government-imposed changes to the economy. Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Illinois and Maryland are forecast for the biggest losses in the short term, according to the Heritage analysis.
McCain’s embrace of government solutions for the environment represents a major shift from the Bush administration’s approach. It also means the country’s next president—Republican or Democrat—will craft a far different global warming strategy at a time when Americans are already feeling the added costs of energy.
“For the market to do more, government must do more by opening new paths of invention and ingenuity,” McCain said in Portland, Ore., drawing a sharp distinction from the conservative philosophy of former President Ronald Reagan, who famously said, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Bob Williams, president of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation in Washington state, said he was disappointed with McCain’s reliance on government. Voters in the Pacific Northwest, Williams said, would be leery of government’s attempts to “do more.”
“In order to implement McCain’s proposal,” Williams said, “government would do more by telling the taxpayer what size car they are going to drive; when they are going to drive it; what size house you will live in; and how much electricity you will use.”
He cited government policies that destroyed thousands of jobs for the Spotted Owl, ruined the Pacific Northwest’s fishing industry, shut down America’s nuclear industry and increased the price of food through ethanol mandates in fuel.
Similar criticism is reverberating with many conservatives, who remain skeptical of global warming. These conservatives care about the environment, but want to ensure that the tradeoffs made with legislation do not pose economic problems in the future.
“I have not faced a situation where a major Republican presidential candidate sounds just like a liberal Democrat,” radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said. “This is embarrassing, and it is frightening.” During his Fox News show, Sean Hannity quipped, “He sounds like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Conservatives are angry.”
Members of Congress are considering several bills designed to combat climate change. Chief among them is Senate bill 2191--America's Climate Security Act of 2007--spearheaded by Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA). This bill would set a limit on the emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide from the combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas.Since energy is the lifeblood of the American economy, 85 percent of which comes from these fossil fuels, S. 2191 represents an extraordinary level of economic interference by the federal government. For this reason, it is important for policymakers to have a sense of the economic impacts of S. 2191 that would go hand in hand with any possible environmental benefits. This Center for Data Analysis (CDA) report describes and quantifies those economic impacts.
Our analysis makes clear that S. 2191 promises extraordinary perils for the American economy. Arbitrary restrictions predicated on multiple, untested, and undeveloped technologies will lead to severe restrictions on energy use and large increases in energy costs. In addition to the direct impact on consumers' budgets, these higher energy costs will spread through the economy and inject unnecessary inefficiencies at virtually every stage of production and consumption--all of which will add yet more financial burdens that must be borne by American taxpayers.
S. 2191 extracts trillions of dollars from the millions of American energy consumers and delivers this wealth to permanently identified classes of recipients, such as tribal groups and preferred technology sectors, while largely circumventing the normal congressional appropriations process. Unbound by the periodic review of the normal budgetary process, this de facto tax-and-spend program threatens to become permanent--independent of the goals of the legislation.
(snip)
We are literally being enslaved. They are fastening the shackles tighter and shortening the chains every day. Revolution is the only cure.
There's folks around here that will blindly vote for him because of it, even though in his case it means RINO.
I’m still waiting for some type of cohesive, understandable, or reasonable argument as to why voting for McCain when he has decided that succumbing to the left on their issues to get elected is the right thing to do when the implementation of his policies (Amnesty and his Global Warming program) would finish both this country and the GOP off
What to do, what to do. We have two Socialists and a Democrat to choose from for president .....
... but he has a high ACU rating </sarcasm>
Global warming on Free Republic
Hmmm, as much as I’m not looking forward to the hardships global warming “solutions” are going to cause, I feel that it will be a benefit overall because it will turn people off to them and hopefully, soon enough not to let whichever candiate gets in office ruin our country beyond repair.
It will be a harsh lesson, but if it takes that to finally wake people up from this global warming hogwash, it may be worth it.
I was actually considering voting for him because of the few good things about him, but now I think my votes are going to be aimed at keeping the RATs from getting a good hold on Congress and the Senate. If we can keep those or at least get good representation in them, we stand a good chance at preventing our next president from destroying us.
Here's something else to think about that sucks: Whose liberal agenda will conservatives in the house and senate fight the hardest - Liberalism coming from a rat president or liberalism coming from "their" guy?
Let the rat's OWN the responsibility of the next 4 years. Jimmy Carter's 4 years didn't kill us, he brought us Ronald Reagan. But there's no way I want Obama in there. I'm pulling for Hillary. She's more conservative than our RINO.
Might be more impressive in Fahrenheit units. Not a lot more impressive, probably not even detectable. Even if they can do this, how would anybody know?
I’m no longer confident that McCain will win, for obvious reasons.
And while I share your idea and hope, I still feel that today’s generation lack the ideals and intelligence that Americans had in the 70s and 80s, so I’m not betting all my money on us getting gains should Osama win.
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