Calculate your one-day Carbon Belch !
Posted on 06/06/2008 12:55:11 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
During the summers of my college years in the mid-1960s, I worked at a local factory in Milwaukee. I won't name the place out of respect for those who surely suffered because of its abysmal working conditions.
As an 18-year-old, did I know that peering through the fumes of a steaming vat of carbon tetrachloride to see if the freshly welded apparatus was "cooked" enough was dangerous? Or that working next to a drop forge that constantly slammed into thick plates of steel could eventually blow out your eardrums?
It wasn't until 1970, when Congress finally passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), that I put all the pieces together on why such legislation was necessary. Today, much the same thing is happening in the area of global warming and carbon dioxide emissions. And like after OSHA, winners and losers will emerge.
The Senate is now reviewing the Climate Security Act introduced by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 63 percent by the year 2050. Today's Lieberman-Warner legislation is modeled after key amendments to the 1990 Clean Air Act that set "cap and trade" benchmarks for the reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions that caused acid rain. In 2002 the Economist magazine crowned the 1990 Clean Air Act "probably the greatest green success story of the past decade."
For those not familiar with the mechanics of cap and trade, let me offer this brief outline. In the 1980s, environmentalists determined that public utilities were emitting too much sulfur dioxide and urged the federal government to step in. Unfortunately, previous government mandates to reduce such emissions were not working, so a group of clever economists came up with a novel scheme that they felt offered monetary incentives for compliance.
First, the Environmental Protection Agency set an annual cap on how much total sulfur dioxide could be emitted in the entire nation. Then all those entities who were emitters of sulfur dioxide were given an allotment on how much they could emit. Now some of them could easily reduce their emissions so they would have extra allotments. Those who couldn't cut emissions, however, needed more allotments. So a secondary market developed for sulfur dioxide allotments. Those with spare allotments sold them to those who needed them.
Second, each succeeding year the sulfur dioxide cap was reduced and the process of cap and trade (buying and allotments to emit sulfur dioxide) continued. Over the next several years the cost of the allotments exceeded the cost of voluntarily reducing the emissions. Eventually, the utilities that participated in the program reduced emissions by 22 percent -- 7.3 million tons -- below mandated levels.
Today's cap and trade proposal is much the same except for one major difference. The allotments in 1990 were distributed free by the EPA and the after-market for the allotments occurred between the utilities that emitted sulfur dioxide. The Lieberman-Warner proposal doesn't freely distribute the allotments, it auctions the allotments and the government gets the auction proceeds. It's not like a tax -- it IS a tax on carbon dioxide.
How much money will this raise for the federal government? Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, estimates that over the life of this cap and trade legislation the federal government could generate a cumulative $3.32 trillion by the year 2050. To say the least, this is a lot of money.
Who will ultimately pay this new tax on carbon dioxide emissions? It won't be the emitters. The cap and trade tax will be passed on to consumers. Yes, the government will distribute this largess to its favored constituents; that's what politicians do. But if the legislation is as successful as the sulfur dioxide cap and trade program of the 1990s, it certainly will be worth the cost. Nonetheless, as investors we will need to be mindful that such government intervention -- like OSHA after 1970 -- will upset some apple carts. It's up to us to determine who the eventual winners and losers will be and invest accordingly.
It took decades to pass OSHA. Hopefully it won't take that long to pass the Lieberman-Warner cap and trade legislation. But it's never too early to work out such details. One thing's for certain: It will raise the cost of virtually all goods and services that depend on energy. And that's just about everything.
I’m glad the legislation is dead ... for now.
Algore’s grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
The big difference is that adoption of OSHA actually benefitted the worker. Cap and Trade benefits nobody, except the Feds and a few select people like Al Gorewho have managed to set up scemes where they actually make money on this folly.
Money before freedom, that is what this guy is preaching. I am sure he is thinking "If I get mine, I can buy my way out of trouble, to hell with the rest of 'em."
Why is anybody even TALKING about a “carbon cap”?
Carbon dioxide is plant food.
Limit the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and you limit a very vital ingredient to form sugar, starch, cellulose, and a number of other carbohydrates, as well as the framework to produce amino acids, and various propyl esters, otherwise known as vegetable oils.
The process of creating carbohydrates, through photosynthesis, also liberates oxygen into the atmosphere, enabling us to BREATHE.
The Lord in his wisdom arranged this series of chemical capabilities, to provide the energy to animate what would otherwise be relatively inert piles of compounds.
Are human beings different from rocks? Yeah? How?
Your essay answer, in 250 words or less. You WILL be graded on your answers, and this will be on your permanent record.\
There is a very important “greenhouse gas” out there - water vapor. Water vapor has about from 200 to over 1,000 times the effect on the climate that carbon dioxide has.
If for no other reason than there is vastly more water vapor in the atmosphere, at any given time, than there EVER was of carbon dioxide.
Most of the carbon in the world is locked up in various strata of minerals.
Most of the oxygen is, too. Which is a good thing. Oxygen is the second most reactive substance in the universe. (Fluorine is even MORE chemically active than oxygen.)
This is truly shameful, and the worst part is the ignorance of the population of the US due to the brainwashing of students in our public schools. Fifty yrs. ago anyone who had been through middle school general science would know enough to not fall for this hoax. CO2 is plant food, not pollution, and our elected officials are modern day alchemists attempting to change carbon into gold.
That factory sounds suspiciously like where I worked in Milwaukee!
Is OSHA state or federal? If the latter it is unconstitutional. And why should we assume it benefits the worker on the whole when it drives up costs? I work in a factory and I have to point out the obvious: people have an incentive to create a safe working environment without the government forcing them to do so.
This whole mentality of expecting the government to fix everything is _not_ compatible with conservatism or liberty in general. We ought to be finding and encouraging solutions in the context of freedom and liberty, not bureaucracies and government planning.
A vat of carbon-tet needs to be heated to 75C to give off visible vapors; this boy probably wouldn’t know a drop-forge if it hit him in the head:
[Uses
In the early 20th century, carbon tetrachloride was widely used as a dry cleaning solvent, as a refrigerant, and in fire extinguishers[3]. However, once it became apparent that carbon tetrachloride exposure had severe adverse health effects, safer alternatives such as tetrachloroethylene were found for these applications, and its use in these roles declined from about 1940 onward. Carbon tetrachloride persisted as a pesticide to kill insects in stored grain, but in 1970, it was banned in consumer products in the United States.
Prior to the Montreal Protocol, large quantities of carbon tetrachloride were used to produce the freon refrigerants R-11 (trichlorofluoromethane) and R-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane). However, these refrigerants are now believed to play a role in ozone depletion and have been phased out. Carbon tetrachloride is still used to manufacture less destructive refrigerants.]
Looks like gas will once again be headed upward big time. I believe as $4 gas starts to seem like a pleasant interlude, most Americans will immediately start seeing through false analogies like this piece of crap.
And while we’re at it, and speaking of our previous isle-crosser R.M. Nixon, how about the Endangered Species Act? Please please let this odious piece of leftist thievery soon be seen for the treachery that it is.
OSHA is federal and unlike legislation, OSHA can simply make regulations. On the whole though, they have applied their regulations in areas where high rates of accidents and injuries and lost time have occurred. Thus in the area of ergonomics (think lifting or repititive work) they have not issued regulations, only guidelines to show companies what they have found in looking at industries with high injury rates.
OSHA is not perfect, but it puts a stop to companies deciding to allow a certain number of injuries even if they could stop them based on cost benefit analysis. It does this by adding fines and penalties that make haveing accidents cost more as they number goes up.
I agree that the ideal is a firm that thinks of their employees as a valuable asset that should be made as safe as possible, but all companies do not reach this conclusion and in particular— when there is a quick buck to be made, there is often the tendency to take a small risk.
As an example consider the company that lost employees in a tower failure. Two men were riding up the tower sitting in the antenna as it was being hoisted. Why did they do this? Well, it was easier than climbing the tower. Was it against the rules? Yes. Did they really need OSHA? Only to avoid the accident, as lawsuits will extract the equivalent of fines and penalties. Why did they do it if it was against the rules? Well, it meant that they would not be tired when they reached the top and could therefore finish that much faster. (As a side note, the antenna fell because the U bolt is was secured to the lifting cable was too weak to carry the antenna and two full size men. It was selected because the engineers did not know people would clip in and ride it up.)
Both of my Grandpas and my Dad were Allis-Chalmers machinists and sheet metal men. We actually lived in “West Allis” which was a subdivision to house A-C families way back when; sort of like Military Housing, or living on the Plantation Owners land. ;)
I bought my first pedal steel guitar at West Allis Music in 1970. The place I worked was a sweatshop. Most of the guys workin’ there came from Manpower. They’d slave for a week or two, get paid, and then disappear to get drunk. The company made “Bulldog” automotive parts. I was happy to have the job, but the company loved the fat, old German gals who worked for next to nothing, so I couldn’t get a raise no matter what.
The plant had a system that circulated a water-based cooling fluid. They never disinfected it with chlorine. I’m pretty sure that’s where I contracted TB!
Yikes! I’m assuming you’ve recovered?
I hope so! It happened 35 years ago. Had to take medicine for almost two years. I kept breaking ribs when coughing. Thirteen breaks in total. Finally went to Milwaukee General. They saw the TB scars. I was locked in a TB isolation ward for 6 months before they finally figured out that my TB was an atypical type, and not contagious. You had to ingest it somehow. Like constantly being exposed to splattering, bacteria-laden, water-based cooling fluid.
OMG! what a terrible story, you poor guy. I am so glad you recovered.
I’ve always said CO2 controls the climate theory is about the money, not the science.
Keep the pressure on congress not to regulate CO2 emissions.
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