THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 189, November 1, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WHAT'S THE REAL COST OF GLOBAL WARMING TAXES?
By Dennis T. Avery
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, & UNITED STATES ENERGY & TAX POLICY: THE
PROPOSED FEDERAL ENERGY & TAX LEGISLATION SUPPORTED BY IDEOPOGICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS & THE POLITICAL
LEFT -- WILL THE LEGISLATION BE PASSED BY THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS & SIGNED INTO LAW BY DEMOCRATIC
PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA? IF ENACTED, THE ADVERSE IMPACT THE LEGISLATION WILL HAVE ON
AMERICA'S ECONOMY, ENERGY SUPPLIES, & POLITICAL STABILITY
FULL STORY:
The Leftish Brookings Institution and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce basically agree that the energy taxes in the House
Waxman-Markey bill could total $9 trillion over ten years. As an economist, I look at these forecasts and wonder “How can
we possibly know?”
These estimates cover only the costs of the “user permits” that companies will have to buy. They don’t even try to
measure the massive reduction in our economic output as energy costs double and triple with scarcity.
Let’s look at a couple of “case studies”:
First, we use a lot of natural gas to make fertilizer, pulling 90 million tons per year of natural nitrogen from the air (which is
78% N). The world has only about one-third of the cow manure needed to nourish today’s crops, so nitrogen fertilizer is
feeding 2 billion of the world’s 6.5 billion people through higher food yields per acre.
Imagine that, ten years from now, the carbon taxes have eliminated half of the nitrogen fertilizer: global food production
has fallen massively — say, by 25–30 percent; world food prices have tripled; and storage bins are empty. What price
would we pay to keep the other half of the nitrogen fertilizer so our kids won’t starve?
Would farmers and the public defend the remaining fertilizer factories with roadblocks — or even firearms? Will
governments overcome the “fertilizer fanatics” with force? How would the governments convince troops to fire on their
own people? By giving the troops food the public can’t get?
Moreover, the BBC has just admitted what careful observers already knew — the planet hasn’t warmed since 1998! Many
climatologists say we’re in a 30-year cooling driven by Pacific Ocean cycling. Will “global warming” come to be viewed as
just a “weapon of mass taxation”?
Second case: Britain is supposed to lose 40 percent of its electrical generating capacity in the next eight years. All but one
of its nuclear plants is due for decommissioning, and the EU declares that nine of its big coal-fired plants emit too much
CO2. As the blackouts spread across a shivering Winter countryside, will the UK government carry through its
fossil-reduction commitments, while elderly people are dying in their homes?
None of the taxes, remember, will bring fossil fuel use down enough to actually forestall man-made global warming — even
if the embattled Greenhouse Theory was valid. The energy taxes will be “all pain and no gain.”
Remember, too that the “Green alternatives” aren’t working out well.
Denmark’s massive investment in wind turbines has produced electricity mainly at night, when no one wants it.
Biofuels nearly doubled world food prices when the U.S. corn ethanol plants were all running. The proposed energy taxes
will quickly drive gasoline and corn back up to food-inflation levels again. They’re supposed to.
Meanwhile, the natural, moderate 1,500-year climate cycle predicts only 0.5 degree Celsius of warming over the next several
centuries. The ice cores and seabed fossils tell us this has all happened many times in the past — including five natural
global warmings in the last 9,000 years.
Politicians can pass fossil fuel taxes through today’s “tame” legislatures — but they can’t make the public obey those laws
after they clearly begin to violate human rights and common sense.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dennis T. Avery is an environmental economist, and a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. He was
formerly a senior analyst for the Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable Global
Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years. Readers may write him at PO Box 202, Churchville, VA 24421 or email to
cgfi@hughes.net
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume XI, 2009
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
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,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity