THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 264, October 12, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
STATES & UTILITIES UNITE TO ROB ENERGY CONSUMERS
By Alan Caruba
ENERGY PRICES IN THE AMERICAN NORTHEAST: ENVIRONMENTALISM, GLOBAL WARMING THEORY, THE REGIONAL
GREENHOUSE GAS INITIATIVE, & THE EXPECTED SHARP INCREASE IN ENERGY CONSUMERS' BILLS IN TEN NORTHEASTERN
STATES -- IMPOSITION OF HIDDEN "GLOBAL WARMING" TAXES THAT ARE TOTALLY WITHOUT SCIENTIFIC MERIT OR
JUSTIFICATION -- A GREAT RIP-OFF OF ENERGY CONSUMERS BY STATE GOVERNMENTS DOMINATED BY
ENVIRONMENTALISTS & PURSUING POLICIES BASED ON GLOBAL WARMING IDEOLOGY
FULL STORY:
Energy consumers in ten northeastern states of the American federal union are going to see their bills rise and probably
not even know why. They will assume that it is tied to the cost of oil, natural gas or coal, but it does so only obliquely.
If you believe that the use of these energy sources are producing huge amounts of carbon dioxide (C02) and other
greenhouse gases that will doom the Earth, then surely the purchase of — and I kid you not — “pollution credits” to
somehow curb global warming is worth the expense.
Even if you don’t believe it, you are going to be socked with that expense, if you live in New York, Connecticut, Delaware,
Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, or Vermont. Six of these states participated
recently in an auction of “carbon credits,” sometimes called “pollution credits.”
The auction raised nearly $40 million “that will be spent by Northeast States on renewable and energy efficient
technologies.” In other words, you are about to pay for wind and solar energy, the two most inefficient and impractical
ways to generate minuscule amounts of electricity. The utilities that were literally required by the states to spend this
money will recoup it by raising the costs of your heating and lighting bill.
If this sounds a lot like the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle that forced banks and lenders to make bad loans,
welcome to the wonderful world of government mandates.
These states belong to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) that involves more than two hundred “fossil fuel”
power plants. It requires the owners of these plants to pay for the carbon dioxide they emit into the air. It doesn’t take a
genius to figure out that those useless, meaningless costs will be passed along to energy consumers in those ten states.
A similar coalition can be found among seven Western States and four Canadian Provinces.
It is a hidden “global warming” tax. It is totally without scientific merit or justification.
Carbon dioxide is the second most essential gas, after oxygen, for the maintenance of all life on Earth. Without it, no
vegetation of any description grows. Not a blade of grass, not a field of corn or wheat, not a giant redwood tree. Take
away vegetation and you have nothing for herbivores of every description to eat. Take away the herbivores and the
carnivores have nothing to eat.
Requiring power plants to pay for emitting CO2 ignores the fact that every human and mammal on Earth exhales CO2
right after inhaling oxygen. In theory, we are all “guilty” of emitting greenhouse gases and should be taxed as well. The
forced purchase of “carbon credits” is that tax.
Who favors it? The spokesman for the Union of Concerned Scientists — a misnomer if ever there was one — called the
first auction “historic.” No doubt there have been many historic rip-offs that preceded this one, but Lance Pierce, the
UCS Program Director was thrilled that “carbon markets have arrived in the United States.” Perhaps, he doesn’t live in
one of the states where consumers are being ripped off?
Pierce went on to babble about “cleaner energy” meaning, of course, solar or wind generated electricity, but he failed to
mention the federal and state subsidies, i.e., taxpayers’ money, used to keep these inefficient and unreliable energy
producers going. In short, they are another consumer rip-off flying under the public’s radar.
The usual environmentalist groups were ecstatic. Dale Bryk of the National Resources Defense Council called the
auction “highly cost-effective,” but did not identify for whom. Perhaps he had in mind World Energy, an operator of
online Green exchanges? Selling “carbon credits” is a way to manufacture value out of thin air, or, should I say, thin
CO2?
The fact is that carbon dioxide constitutes about 0.038% of the Earth’s atmosphere. There is no evidence that it
precedes or initiates “global warming” and plenty of evidence that it tends to increase only several hundred years after
it occurs.
Finally, we get to the fact that there is NO global warming. Nada, zip, nunca, niete! None! The Earth has been in a
cooling cycle now for a decade. The Sun has meteorologists scared to death because there are no sunspots, magnetic
storms, occurring and this is a well known indicator of, at the least, a little ice age, and, at the worse, a really big one.
If that news wasn’t enough to make you angry over this fraudulent scheme to wrest money from energy users, it is
supported by the governors of the states involved and by both the candidates running for U.S. President. It’s called
“cap-and-trade,” and, when you hear a politician mention it, reach for your wallet, because it is about to get lighter.
The rip-off doesn’t end there, however. In September, 2008, Business Week revealed that “more than 750
utilities across the country now offer customers the chance to pay a premium on their electricity bills to generate
'Green power.'" However, "it turns out that, in many cases, most of the money goes for marketing costs, and little can
be traced to the generation of additional renewable energy.”
Normally, people who engage in such fraud are caught, tried, and sent to jail. Instead, with these Green schemes, they
hope to get elected to office or dupe consumers into paying more for allegedly reducing greenhouse gases, while
increasing the profits of utilities.
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 and science 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 2008
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
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity