THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 80, March 15, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE GREENS HATE ENERGY, AMERICA, & YOU!
By Alan Caruba
THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS' POLITICAL AGENDA: RENDER AMERICA A THIRD-WORLD COUNTRY BY PREVENTING THE
BUILDING OF NEW ELECTRICAL POWER PLANTS & THE EXPLORATION & EXTRACTION OF OUR NATURAL RESOURCES OF
COAL, NATURAL GAS, & OIL
FULL STORY:
I doubt that most Americans have a clue what the leading Green organizations like Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club
have as their agenda for 2009. They have already made it known to their members, so I will share it with you.
There are literally dozens of these environmentalist groups in the United States and each has its own particular focus of
attention, but the largest among them play well together in the giant sandbox of Green utopian fantasies. That’s why both
the FOE and Sierra Club announced they are looking forward to “a clean slate” from the Obama administration.
“There’s nothing like a fresh start. On his first day in office, President Obama could make four decisions that would start
2009 with a ‘clean slate’ of energy policies,” said Friends of the Earth at the same time, the Sierra Club announced its own
“Clean Slate Energy Agenda” that — surprise — was the same.
The focus of both is on energy use and accessibility. Both want a lot LESS energy use. Along with all other
environmentalist organizations, both use the bogy man of “global warming” to demand huge reductions in “emissions.”
The Sierra Club informed its members that it wants to “reduce global warming emissions quickly by making it possible for
over a dozen states to implement their clean car requirements.” This is the objective of one of President Obama’s earliest
executive orders. Driving up the cost of owning and operating a car directly strikes at the ability of Americans to be mobile
and independent. Justifying it as necessary to reduce global warming is just a big fat lie. There is NO global warming.
Friends of the Earth is totally opposed to any economic stimulus that might include improving the nation’s infrastructure
of highways. They warned the plan “is in danger of being hijacked by the road-building lobby, which wants billions of
dollars for unnecessary new roads that would increase global warming pollution.”
Over the years, I have come to marvel at the ability of environmentalist organizations to conjure up statistics faster than a
magician can pull a rabbit out of a hat. “Transportation is responsible for 30 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions
and 70 percent of our oil consumption” warned Friends of the Earth. What does it matter that carbon dioxide emissions
have no impact whatever on the Earth’s climate? And just what is wrong with oil consumption, if it contributes to the
success and growth of the nation’s economy?
“Just 10 miles of a new four-lane highways lead to emissions that are equivalent to the lifetime emissions of 46,700 new
Hummers,” said Friends of the Earth. To which I reply, who cares? With oil prices plunging, those Hummers, particularly
in parts of the nation hit by bad weather, look like a good idea. Bottom line: if you can afford a Hummer, where is it written
you should not be allowed to own one?
Friends of the Earth, however, wants to “shift the debate” in the environmentalist community to get the nation to avoid
“car-centric highways and toward sustainable alternatives such as transit, biking, walking, and smart growth development,
that will help fight global warming.”
What are these Green groups going to do when the vast population of the United States and elsewhere around the world
concludes that there is no global warming? That day is not far off, insofar as the Earth is now fully a decade into a cooling
cycle that promises longer, harsher winters and a shift to generally cooler temperatures that will affect all Northern
Hemisphere nations in particular and, to an extent, nations in the Southern Hemisphere as well.
This explains why the United Nations environmental program has shifted into high gear to get the bogus Kyoto Protocols
ratified. Not surprisingly, the U.S.A. has never signed on to it, and even European nations that did are balking at emission
reduction mandates. Meanwhile, neither China, nor India, nor many underdeveloped nations are subject to any of the
restrictions. It’s a plan to undermine the economies of developed nations because Greens hate humanity in general and
successful economies in particular.
We’re not even halfway through the “clean slate” proposals. They include Sierra Club’s call to “require new and existing
coal power plants to limit their global warming emissions” and to “end destructive mountaintop removal mining….” Finally,
the environmentalists want to “restore America’s international leadership in the fight to end global warming by publicly
committing the U.S.A. to cut its CO2 emissions at least 35 percent by 2020.”
The Greens are so demented that the American Bird Conservancy released a statement in mid-December hailing the
appointments of the new Obama administration. Its idea of stimulating the economy was to “invest $29 million dollars over
the next four years in the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act” because “bird watching is now big business.”
The Conservancy wants the U.S.A. to “invest “$540 million in America’s 543 national wildlife refuges” to create more
“green jobs.” What a big help that will be to Americans who live primarily in America’s cities and suburbs.
The bird-lovers are a bit conflicted over another recommendation, a recommendation to “invest $30.5 million in the five
year extension of the renewable energy production tax credit and making renewable energy tax incentives fully refundable.
Wind energy is one of the alternative sources of energy” they recommend, but, “if left unregulated, has the potential to
kill large numbers of birds and bats and harm fragile habitats.” Well, which is it? Dead birds or more “alternative” energy?
Both are extremely bad ideas.
The Greens, for all their enthusiasm to spend tax dollars on their favorite notions, remain opposed to any real energy
generation by coal-fired or nuclear plants to meet current and future needs for electricity. They are utterly opposed to
people driving around in cars for any reason and, one must assume, trucks that deliver the goods we require to live.
The longer one listens to what the Greens want, the more one becomes convinced that the members of environmentalist
organizations must be utterly brain dead and that their objective is to render America a Third-World nation by opposing
the building of new power plants, along with the exploration and extraction of our natural resources of coal, natural gas,
and oil.
Does this sound like a good plan to you?
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Alan Caruba is a veteran business, science and political writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National
Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary,
"Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba has a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.
Caruba’s most recent book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press. Books
previously authored by Caruba include A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam, The United Nations Versus the United States: The
UN's Plan to Control Planet Earth, and America: A Nation Without Borders -- A Pocket Guide to Immigration Issues.
© Alan Caruba 2009
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity