THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 30, January 30, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WHO COULD OPPOSE "CLEAN ENERGY"?
By Dennis T. Avery
THE "CLEAN ENERGY" PROGRAM PROPOSED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA IN HIS 2011 STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS TO
CONGRESS: WHAT WOULD BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF CONGRESSIONAL ENACTMENT OF OBAMA'S "CLEAN
ENERGY" INITIATIVE? WOULD AMERICANS BE FORCED TO GIVE UP MOST OF THE ENERGY THAT CURRENTLY KEEPS
THEM WARM & PRODUCTIVE? WOULD IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NEW ENERGY POLICY CAUSE CHAOS IN THE
AMERICAN ECONOMY, COSTING IT AS MUCH AS $4 TRILLION OVER THE NEXT TWENTY YEARS & FORCING LARGE NUMBERS
OF U.S. JOBS OVERSEAS?
FULL STORY:
President Barack Obama didn’t mention carbon constraints in his State of the Union message. Such carbon constraints
would force the nation to give up most of the energy that currently keeps us warm and productive. Instead, the President
proposed a new “clean energy” program, which would force the nation to give up most of the energy that currently keeps
us warm and productive. A study by the Beacon Hill Institute in Boston estimates the President’s “clean energy”
proposal might well cost the economy $4 trillion over 20 years, and force huge numbers of U.S. jobs overseas.
President Obama’s “new” proposal is obviously being offered as Plan B, since his cap-and-trade proposal failed in the
Congress. He obviously hopes to lure some befuddled U.S. House Republican votes to pass it. The President is not
“moving to the middle.” Instead he is playing bait-and switch. Either cap-and-trade or “clean energy” would cause chaos
in the American economy. Remember his desperate efforts to pass Obamacare, complete with the payoffs to key
U.S. Senators? He is rigidly persistent!
Now it gets even worse. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon just announced that he will quit pushing for an international
agreement to ban fossil fuels. Guess what now rates as worthy of his efforts instead: a “clean energy initiative”! Ban says
this is necessary to reduce climate risks, cut poverty, and improve global health. Does anybody think he means
substituting kerosene stoves in Bangladeshi huts to prevent the lung diseases women get from burning wood and dung
in open cook-fires?
The political Left has decided that global warming is no longer an effective rallying cry. The Pacific Ocean shifted into its
cooling phase in 2007 — predicting another 25 years of moderate cooling. So the Left would like to “clean up” our energy
instead. What about stack scrubbers on our coal-fired power plants? What about catalytic converters in the exhaust
systems on our cars? What about a 95 percent improvement in U.S. air quality since the passage of the Clean Air Act in
1972, though the Environmental Protection Agency keeps moving the goal posts so the environmentalists don’t have to
admit this!
If Mr. Obama and the UN Secretary-General aren’t really worried about global warming, and aren’t really planning to make
a billion women and children safer in their huts, what could possibly be triggering this “clean energy” focus?
They think we are all idiots. They hornswoggled the affluent world into fearing the finest weather the earth has enjoyed in
the last million years, and they think they can now switch their alarmist campaign to a new target without breaking stride.
The same cadre of Green activists, unelected bureaucrats and willing dupes in the mainstream media will be just as happy
to push “clean energy” as they were to disseminate “global warming” propaganda and push climate legislation.
The UN would love to be the energy rationing board for the world. The extra UN jobs and graft would make Saddam
Hussein’s oil-for-food pay-offs look like small change. Does anyone remember gasoline rationing during World War II?
The Rationing Board controlled the economy. They radically reduced “non-essential” gasoline use to make more gas
available for the war effort.
But now we have no “war effort.” We have only a Green wish-dream that we humans will give up our abundant food
supply, shift from autos to bicycles, and exist as 500 million hunter-gatherers using our cell phones to locate the nearest
berry patch.
Well, what reason have we given these people to believe we are not a bunch of idiots?
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Science, Ethics, & Human Health:
Human Health & Public Policy
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
Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., is an environmental economist. He was
formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable Global
Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years.
Readers may write to Avery at PO Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421 or send email to him at cgfi@hughes.net
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity