THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 17, January 16, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE GREAT "CLIMATE CHANGE" 2011 TAXPAYER RIP-OFF
By Alan Caruba
UNITED STATES ENERGY, "RESEARCH," & FISCAL POLICY: THE WAYS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION INTENDS TO
SQUANDER THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS' MONEY ON CLIMATE CHANGE "RESEARCH," RENEWABLE ENERGY "RESEARCH" &
PRODUCTION, & GREENHOUSE GAS MITIGATION -- BILLIONS OF U.S. DOLLARS WASTED OR SOON TO BE WASTED ON
"RESEARCH," ENERGY, & ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS WHICH CAN ONLY BE DEEMED AN OBSCENE DIVERSION OF
TAXPAYER MONEY THAT WILL NOT BENEFIT A SINGLE TAXPAYER OR GENERATE ANY NEW JOBS (EXCEPT FOR THOSE IN
THE GOVERNMENTAL BUREAUCRACY) & THAT WILL FURTHER BANKRUPT A BANKRUPTED NATION ABOUT TO HAVE ITS
CREDIT RATING REDUCED
FULL STORY:
Unless I am seriously mistaken or misinformed, the rate of unemployment in the U.S.A. remains high and the foreclosure
rate on homes is approaching the level of the Great Depression years. Two major bond rating companies, Moody’s and
Standard and Poor’s just warned that, if the U.S. federal government doesn’t stop spending and borrowing, America’s
Triple-A, highest ranking will be down-graded.
Along with all the other things in the federal budget wish list for 2011, are millions to be spent on policies and programs
designed to prevent, control, or moderate -- as well as to do research in order to find out how to prevent, control, or
moderate -- catastrophic global climate change, in particular, runaway global warming.
It helps to understand how obscene this is if you pause to consider (1) there is not one damn thing anyone can do about
climate change, (2) climate change has been researched and studied since the late 1980s, producing enough reports to
fill an entire wing of the Congressional Library, and (3) the only climate change Americans really need to know about is
what the weather will be tomorrow.
With a tip of the hat to Climatequotes.com and the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS)
report on “research development, fiscal year 2011,” let me share just a few of the ways the Obama administration intends
to squander your money.
The magic number is $2,481,000, and it represents specific amounts devoted to "climate change" research or other
programs requested for the 2011 budgets by an alphabet soup of federal agencies that include the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), NASA, Department of Energy (DOE), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of the Interior (DOI), and the Department of Agriculture
(DOA).
The figures cited all come from Chapter 15 of the AAAS report, and you can access it via Climatequotes.com
NOAA’s total budget request is for $5.6 billion, an increase of 17%. It intends to devote $437 million for climate research
funding, an increase of $77 million over last year.
Over at the National Science Foundation (NSF), its budget of $7.4 billion (that’s a lot of science!) includes a request for
$480 million for Atmospheric and Earth Sciences, $765.5 million for NSF’s Science, Engineering and Education for
Sustainability program and $19 million for a joint program with DOE “to promote education in clean energy research. An
additional $10 million would fund “Climate Change Education” in the nation’s schools. It’s not education; it’s
indoctrination.
The Department of Energy, which currently is projecting that permits for deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico won’t
be forthcoming until, maybe, June, 2011, seems oblivious to the fact that the price of oil is set to hit $100 a barrel and
higher costs will hit everyone driving anything using gasoline or diesel fuel. Fuel oil prices will rise and any business
that uses oil or anything made with oil will be forced to raise its prices. In short, the higher oil prices will adversely
impact on everything.
DOE, however, is in no hurry and, of course, the Obama administration is dead set against ANWR or off-shore
exploration and extraction of the BILLIONS of barrels of crude oil projected to exist.
However, DOE is set to receive $28.4 billion in 2011, and that includes $4.6 billion for research and development in its
Office of Science and $2.4 billion for energy research and development. Its Office of Biological and Environmental
Research is devoted to atmospheric science, including “climate modeling,” which would be allocated $627 million. Last
time I checked, oil, coal, and natural gas were not found in the “atmosphere,” but, rather, were extracted from deep
within the Earth.
The entire global warming hoax was and is based on “climate modeling,” all of which consistently found that the Earth
was warming at an alarming rate. However, the Earth is NOT warming. It has been cooling since 1998. And DOE intends
to waste $627 million on more modeling. It is worth noting that the most sophisticated models of the National Weather
Bureau still cannot predict with any confidence what the weather — not the climate — will be next week.
The Environmental Protection Agency, gearing up to regulate all utilities that produce carbon dioxide and all other
industries that do the same, has zero authorization to do so under the Clean Air Act. It is CO2 that is designated by the
global warming alarmists as the chief culprit for the global warming that is NOT happening.
Despite this, EPA has requested $169 million “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” with $43.5 million in new funding
for “regulatory efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions” through the Clean Air Act. And it wants $22 million for its
Global Change Research Program. It is time to shut down this rogue agency before it totally destroys the economy.
Even the Department of Agriculture wants $159 million for “climate change research” -- an increase of 42% -- and $179
million for renewable energy, to “help farmers.” Farmers are heavy users of fossil fuels to operate the machinery needed
to till, plant, and harvest crops. They need reliable energy, not "renewable" energy.
The Recovery Act of 2009 has managed to blow more than $600 million on climate change research and billions on
greenhouse gas mitigation.
This is just the tip of the ‘climate change’ rip-off, in terms of billions wasted or soon to be wasted on “research” that
can only be deemed an obscene diversion of taxpayer money that will not benefit a single taxpayer, generate any new
jobs (except for those in government agencies), and further bankrupt a bankrupted nation about to have its credit rating
reduced.
The “scientists,” “regulators,” and “administrators” feasting off this federal largess should be handed a shovel to earn
a living on one of those “shovel ready” projects we were told about.
Beyond that, if Congress was really intent on cutting back on spending, they could begin by defunding or shutting
down the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and all the other federal grifters with their
snouts rooting around in the climate change trough.
---------------------------------
© Alan Caruba, 2011
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Fiscal Policy: Taxation & Government Spending
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 writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, commentator and business and science writer,
he is the Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about "scare campaigns" designed to influence
public opinion and public policy.
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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,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity