The American Spectator : Counting the Costs

Text Size

Counting the Costs

By Paul Chesser on 8.25.09 @ 6:07AM

But not taking the temperature. The Southern Governors Association on cap and trade.

It's hard to imagine the Southern Governors Association would come up with a cap-and-tax plan when only half their members showed up at their annual meeting over the weekend, but Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia did his best to sow harmony around the idea.

In his role as chairman of SGA, according to the Virginian-Pilot, the Old Dominion Democrat got to choose the topic of this year's conference. Despite some resistance from colleagues -- presumably from oil-producing states like Mississippi and Alabama (Texas and Louisiana being no-shows), and from coal-cultivating neighbor West Virginia -- Kaine was allowed to move forward as long as he "promised to merely start a conversation and not push any specific agenda." He only partially kept his commitment.

The conversation started, and while governors debated the merits of cap-and-tax schemes, whether a specific agenda was pushed depends on your interpretation. If the meaning is, in this context, that carbon emissions must be limited and how it is accomplished is open for discussion, then no "specific agenda" was pushed.

But if you're a climate realist (like thousands of scientists and millions of Americans) who recognizes that human attempts to limit carbon are futile and will do nothing to change global temperatures one way or another, then the push to cap emissions was on. Not one climate scientist was present to help the SoGovs understand that global temperatures have not increased since 1998; that Antarctic ice extent is increasing; that surface temperature stations show a bias towards warming; or other fun facts that undermine the global warming paranoia.

"Obviously we all agree on the goals of trying to approach this climate-change issue -- that's cleaning up our air and holding down greenhouse-gas emissions," said Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat. "The issues that we're wrestling with are in the details of how we do that, the cost of doing it and how those costs are distributed."

It appears the closest anyone came to challenging climate assumptions was Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican, who "asked how scientists can reliably forecast global temperatures into the next century if 'we can't even predict what the weather will be like later this afternoon.'"

Logical enough, but then later he praised the work of the Center for Climate Strategies, a cap-and-tax advocacy group that has lobbied state governments (mostly governors) to institute carbon limits and negotiate regional agreements with each other, such as the Western Climate Initiative and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Its goal is to create a hopeless mishmash of state-level carbon regulations that would cause electric utilities, oil companies, and other industries to cry "uncle" and beg the federal government for a single, national standard.

The other conference attendees also avoided science questions, and instead acted as though something had to be done about greenhouse gases, with the debate about what cap-and-trade would cost the South. A voice of negativity arose from Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, according to the Daily Press of Newport News:

A federal energy bill that has passed through the U.S. House and awaits a vote in the Senate could have a devastating effect on power companies and result in rising electric costs for consumers, a panel of Southern utility officials told 11 Southern governors Sunday.

The bill's requirement that utilities generate 20 percent of their power through renewable resources like wind and solar by 2020 or face penalties puts an unfair burden on utilities in the South, where those types of power generation are less effective, the utilities said….

"Many of our states have no chance to generate consistent wind and solar power," said [Barbour]. The House-passed energy bill, named the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, "just screws us."

Similarly Kaine's fellow Democrat governor from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, also voiced opposition, the Virginian-Pilot reported:

[Manchin] said he strongly opposes a proposed cap-and-trade strategy pending before Congress. And he warned that any plan that significantly hikes energy costs will not only hurt his state's ability to compete for businesses and jobs but also put the United States at a huge disadvantage against China and India, economic giants that are not party to worldwide negotiations on climate change policy.

For their parts, Kaine and his chosen discussion panelists repeated the "we must do something" mantra.

"We're going to have to move out and take a couple steps knowing [China and India are] not going to immediately follow," said retired Virginia Sen. John Warner, who spoke on climate change and national security. "Maybe by Step 3, they'll recognize they need to get going, too."

"I think the biggest bang for the buck because you both save money and you remove a lot [of greenhouse gases] is in the conservation and efficiency investments," Kaine said.

No one expected unanimous consent on the issue going in to the weekend, but that's not what Kaine needed. He and his fellow climate alarmists sought just a few Southern governors to start a "conversation" and buy into the program, much like what happened in the West, Midwest, and Northeast. All the talk points to a likely mission accomplished.

topics:
Cap and Trade, Tim Kaine, Southern Governors Association

About the Author

Paul Chesser is executive director for the American Tradition Institute and a senior fellow for the Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives. The views he expresses do not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (11) | Leave a comment

Marc Jeric| 8.25.09 @ 6:19AM

1) There was first in the 1970's the global cooling scam (see e.g. Newsweek April 28 1975 on the Internet); the government-paid scientists (90% of them are rejects of private enterprise) recommended to fight the new ice age by sending our war planes to cover the polar ice with soot in order to increase solar heat and so prevent crushing of New York skyscrapers by the new glaciers;
2) When that did not work we had the global warming hoax in the 1990's, proclaimed by mainly the same government-paid scientists (Dr. Hansen of the NOAA, for example); to prevent the massive heating, fires, flooding of coastal cities, disappearance of Florida, California, and Caribbean islands, massive hurricanes, global famine, and other catastrophic events we should nationalize oil and gas and coal and electricity companies;
3) after 11 years of considerable cooling we are now faced with the climate change flimflam where whatever happens with our climate we should nationalize oil and gas and coal and electricity companies; and why not our banks, car and insurance companies while we are at it. To prevent this catastrophe the best vehicle presumably is international agreements enforced by the United Nations world government.
4) and now we have "cap™" conspiracy.
As for the influence of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas: on a normal day the atmosphere contains 10,000 ppm (parts per million) of water vapor and about 300 ppm of carbon dioxide. The government-paid scientists say that an increase of 100 ppm of CO2 over the next 50 years will result in a catastrophic warming. The thermal absorptivity of water vapor is 4 times larger than that of carbon dioxide; it follows that the CO2 increase will increase the overall thermal absorptivity of the mixture by about 1/4 of one percent. The production of methane from livestock flatulence and the rotting swamps (called "wetlands" by the environmentalists) vastly surpasses the influence of human-produced CO2.
There is the Global Warming Petition Project (see Internet) where 31,478 US independent scientists declared that there is no anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming; of these 9,029 are scientists with PhD degrees. Our environmentalists tried to sabotage this effort by submiiting phony names with phoney degrees - and then claimed the whole effort by the Petition scientists was a fraud. It took us 3 years and a lot of private money to verify the credentials of all the signatories and clean up the Petition of those saboteurs. See also Manhattan Declaration with more such signatories, plus a large number of scientific groups from other countries who state the same.
I am one of these signatories, MS and PhD degrees from UCLA, with majors in thermodynamics and heat & mass transfer.
I think to fight this communist attempt to secure a permanent hold on power should not be fought on the narrow grounds of more taxes - that is the losing proposition; where about 50% of the population is on some kind of welfare we will always be outvoted. The battle should be fought and won on the firm scientific basis.
SCAM - HOAX - FLIMFLAM-CONSPIRACY!!!

Melvin| 8.25.09 @ 7:32AM

Dear Governor Kaine, I have been to Asia numerous times. Earth to Governor, we could go back to riding horsing and reading by candlelight and the Chinese will still be Chinese laughing their rickshaws off at those stupid Americans and Europeans.
The Chinese economy will slow down for no one, it can't slow down out of fear of rebellion of all those billions of Chinese that want stuff!!
The rest of Asia's economies are not going to slow down either, but I will at this. There are many Asian countries that are taking the common sense route of curbing pollution where ever they can without hurting their growth of their economies.
Only the United States and the terrorist freeing Europeans want to jump of the cliff into the abyss of stupidity.

Paul from SA| 8.25.09 @ 11:38AM

Cap & Trade is about money -- to acquire power to control citizens. Otherwise equal CO2 limits would be placed equally upon all citizens. Politicians, the rich, celebrities, environmentalists, activists would not be allowed to pollute the planet more than anybody else.

Exceeding those limits would involve jail time, not paying more money.

gill.Oteen07041776@gmail.com| 8.25.09 @ 12:00PM

My neck of the woods just enjoyed the coolest July on record, and we are probably headed for an all time, since records were first tracked, record low August. I have only run the AC once this summer, and that was because The Boss said I must. No matter, the clowns running things have an agenda and don’t want any stupid truths derailing their hopes to change the United States into a third world economy. The most inconvenient truth is that given the golden calf’s incredible debt, we simply cannot afford his vision. If he gets his cap and trade legislation passed and signed, we will more than likely plunge faster than a lemming over a cliff into a depression that will make the one my parents enjoyed seem like an afternoon at the amusement park. If obumacare passes and he signs it into law, we will more than likely plunge faster than a lemming over a cliff into a depression that will make the one my parents enjoyed seem like an afternoon at the amusement park. If both bills wend their way into the legal code, we will plunge faster than a lemming over a cliff into a depression that will make the one my parents enjoyed seem like an afternoon at the amusement park. There will be no escape from his despair and chains other than a civil war. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but there will simply be no choice as no matter what happens in November 2010, it will not undo the damage these traitors will have inflicted on this nation. May God keep us and protect us from our own government which I now fear.

Gill O’Teen ✝✡
gill.Oteen07041776@gmail.com
Don’t Tread on Me!!

notoobama| 8.25.09 @ 9:58PM

I made the mistake of voting for Kaine in the last election and can't wait until he is gone this fall.
McDonald for governor of Virginia!

Dave Lincoln| 8.26.09 @ 12:33AM

""We're going to have to move out and take a couple steps knowing [China and India are] not going to immediately follow," said retired Virginia Sen. John Warner, who spoke on climate change and national security. "Maybe by Step 3, they'll recognize they need to get going, too." "

Gee, maybe by Step 3 they'll finally stop laughing their asses off at us and decide to nuke what's left of this shell of a nation, wait for the radiation from fallout to taper off and grab the rest of our machine tools.

Oh, and winch the Statue of Liberty head off of the beach to bring home for scrap.

chi hair straightener| 8.31.09 @ 3:28AM

A painter for a portrait of young women, the two old man stopped him in the artist. "Two years ago,chi Pink ceramic flat iron there is a painter as a portrait of my daughter," one old man said, "up to now not a good painting." "It's nothing,"chi Pink dazzle flat iron another old man said, "30 years ago, our city a good start to the artist portrait of my wife." "How the?" "Until now, I did get pictures, do not have to see his wife."

Airjordan C| 9.2.09 @ 1:30AM

Yes, it's hard to imagine the Southern Governors Association would come up with a cap-and-tax plan , but Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia did his best to sow harmony around the idea.

Thanks for sharing.

rolex watchesshoes| 11.5.10 @ 11:34PM

These Watches Sale are all the hottest selling cheap Watches

susan| 11.30.10 @ 3:15AM

20101130 yjr Welcome to NFL Jersey Zone 2011NFL.com. NFL is one of the most popular games in American even in the world. There are many other NFL Jerseys teams. Since Sonny Werblin managed one of the NFL team New York Jets, this team combines with modernization. Other teams are also popular, Such as Oakland raiders, Detroit lions, leveland browns, and San Diego chargers and so on. Of course more fans like to wear sports clothes to show their enthusiasm. To meet lots of fans’ demands, our website offers various of NFL Jerseys. All of them are real materials, which durable, Ventilation, quick-drying fabric slightly heavier. We are sincere to hope that our products can meet your satisfaction. Once you put on it, the enthusiasm to NFL can be stimulated.
Our mission is to make the best quality NFL Jerseys to our kind customers all over the world. And we promise we will try our best to server for our valued customers. We hope get your supports to our website 2011NFL.com. Once you have any problem, you can contact our customer service. We will always be here to serve for you. At last, it is our honor to inform that The more NFL Jerseys you order, the more discount you will get.