 |
 |
||
|
|
|||
 |
|||
|
|
|||
|
The Great Cap-and-Trade Scam Of all the crazed global warming proposals being put forth by the new masters of Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Barbara Boxer, chairperson of the Public Works Committee, by far the worst would be a mandated cap-and-trade program that would supposedly offset carbon dioxide emissions. This program is horrid on several counts. First, there is not a scintilla of scientific evidence—other than disputed and dubious computer models—to suggest that any significant global warming is occurring. The warming and cooling of the Earth is an entirely natural phenomenon. Second, carbon dioxide (CO2) plays only a minor role as a so-called greenhouse gas. The predominant greenhouse gas is water vapor produced by the world’s oceans. Even if a mild warming were to occur, the only result would be an extended period to grow more crops and to enhance the growth of the world’s forests that generate the oxygen on which all humans depend for life. Third, the notion that man-made CO2 emissions—the result of industrial activity, the use of cars and trucks for transportation, and a host of other things humans do—is a major contributor to "climate change" is almost too silly to believe. Recently, the European Union identified cow and sheep burping as an even greater threat than human activity, but ruminants have been doing this long before human civilization began. Similarly, climate change went on long before industrialization occurred and continues today as always, almost entirely the result of the Sun’s cyclical activity, the oceans, volcanic activity, and other factors totally beyond the control of mankind. To get an idea how bogus cap-and-trade emissions credits are, one need only look to see who is behind this spurious campaign. At or near the top of that list is the United Nations for whom global warming has become the Holy Grail. By positioning themselves to save the Earth, the U.N. sets itself up to control all aspects of life upon it. Supporting the U.N. program are the endless non-governmental organizations that benefit from keeping people fearful the Earth will come to an end without their programs to save it.
Just as Al Gore tells us that he can continue living an extravagant lifestyle, using private jets and living in a home that uses many times more electricity than the average home, because he buys carbon "offsets", this obvious fiction will be embraced as large corporations and small realize what a cash cow cap-and-trade can be. It’s already happening. In April, the Financial Times revealed the results of its investigation. It turned out that "some organizations are paying for emissions reductions that do not take place. Others are meanwhile making big profits from carbon trading for very small expenditure and, in some cases, for clean-ups that they would have made anyway." The Financial Times investigation concluded that there were "widespread instances of people and organizations buying worthless credits that do not yield any reductions in carbon emissions." Further charges included the fact that the brokers for these credits were "providing services of questionable or no value." Think back now to those "climate exchanges" the large banking houses have embraced. When even The New York Times, one of the oldest and greatest global warming propaganda sheets around, ridicules a carbon neutral lifestyle, you have got to know just how idiotic it is. A recent Times article quoted Dennis Hayes, one of the gurus of environmentalism, as saying, "The worst of the carbon-offset programs resemble the Catholic Church’s sale of indulgences back before the Reformation." The absolute worst part of these cap-and-trade emissions programs is the way they will affect the American consumer. A recent report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) delivered a devastating indictment of the proposal. In brief, the CBO concluded that the CO2 cap-and-trade scheme would increase home energy costs and the price of gas, unfairly punishing the poor while transferring wealth to the rich who have investments in these industries. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) noted that "Today’s report confirms what Europe, Canada, and many other nations have come to realize about CO2 cap-and-trade schemes: The entire carbon debate has been skewed toward the least effective and most economically damaging of the various approaches." Not one of the nations that signed onto the Kyoto Protocol to limit their CO2 emissions has ever met the standards to which they agreed and none ever will. The cap-and-trade scheme is just another version of these meaningless limits, but one that is designed to enrich those who engage in the smoke-and-mirrors trade in such credits. If a Democrat-controlled Congress permits this to occur, the global warming scam will have been brought to its full culmination and purpose, the enrichment of those who have been perpetrating it and those who seek to benefit from it. How much is the truth worth to you? The National Anxiety Center needs your donation today! Have you told a friend about the Center’s website? The Price of Driving in America As summer nears, the price of oil has risen as it has always risen. You don’t have to be an oil industry genius to know that Americans get into their cars and onto the road in greater numbers every summer. However, there are other factors affecting the price of a gallon of gasoline and the time is long overdue to address them. In the May 7 edition of my daily newspaper, there was an Associated Press article with the headline "Average price of U.S. gas hits record $3.07 a gallon." In the same edition, the editorial’s headline was "Keep the coasts free of oil drilling." The relationship between not drilling for oil and the increasing price of a gallon of gas is self-evident. More supply. Lower prices. Less supply. Higher prices. That didn’t deter the editorial writer from concluding that "a proposed five-year plan to develop offshore oil and gas wells in American waters…could mean trouble for New Jersey." You want trouble in New Jersey and the other 49 States? Just do nothing and watch the price of a gallon of gas hit $4.00 and keep climbing. Without a car I couldn’t even buy groceries without having to buy a little red wagon and walking several miles to and from the closest supermarket. Typically, the editorial warned against "the serious risks of an accident." Oil spills in the offshore areas of the United States where drilling platforms exist—primarily California, Florida and throughout the Gulf of Mexico—are so negligible, you have to go back to the Exxon Valdez accident to find any. The editorial called for a permanent ban on oil and gas drilling "on the East and West Coasts". On the "Energy Kid’s Page" of the U.S. Department of Energy Internet site, a few, easy-to-understand facts are provided in a way that children can grasp, even if editorial writers cannot. Fact: "Offshore oil producers are always taking precautions to prevent pollution, spills and significant changes to the ocean environment. Since 1975, drilling in the Exclusive Economic Zone has a safety record of 99.999 percent, meaning that only .0001 percent of the oil produced has been spilled." Fact: "It is estimated that 30 percent of undiscovered U.S. gas and oil reserves are in the Outer Continental Shelf." Fact: "Offshore drilling looks very different today, supplying about 25 percent of the nation’s natural gas production and about 24 percent of its oil production. Drilling rigs can now operate in water as much as two miles deep." Now, let’s add another factor. In 2005 BP, an oil giant that touts its devotion to the environment had a refinery accident in Texas City, Texas that killed 15 people. It has not returned to full refining capacity. In January of this year, Business Week reported that, in August 2006, "BP was forced to cut production in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay field after inspectors discovered corroded and leaking pipelines." The AP story reported that a BP plant in Indiana that processes 400,000 barrels of oil a day would not be operating at full capacity for several months "due to unexpected repairs." A little less BP propaganda tied to the slogan "Beyond petroleum" and a lot more attention to safety and maintenance would serve consumers far better. Thanks in part to onerous Environmental Protection Agency regulations a new oil refinery hasn’t been built in the United States since the 1970s. Despite every bit of evidence that the United States needs to tap its known oil reserves in Alaska, efforts to do so in the ANWR area have been thwarted by Congress for years. Now, efforts to do the same in continental offshore areas are being thwarted by politicians more interested in being "green" than in the interests of a growing economy and population. So, yes, you will pay more at the gas pump and, unless this oil schizophrenia ends, you can count on devoting more and more of your family budget to this expense with every passing year. Only by learning the truth behind the global warming and other environmental lies can you act to avoid the costs that will occur if they are allowed to become the law of the land. The National Anxiety Center exists to reveal the truth, but depends on your donation to continue our work. Please take a moment to help support the Center. If you prefer to send a check, make it payable to The Caruba Organization, 28 West Third Street, Suite 1321, South Orange, NJ 07079. Thank you!
©
2007 Alan Caruba. |
||||||||||||||||||||
The adage, however, is "follow the money" and here’s where we find the greatest supporters of cap-and-trade emissions credits. Huge financial firms such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are betting they can make billions through government mandated programs in which vast amounts of money move back and forth through "climate exchanges" where companies trade their alleged emissions reduction activities for credits, i.e., real cash.