Last Thursday, Harry Reid glumly decided that cap and trade is dead, an announcement that conservatives celebrated, while reactions among environmentalists vacillated between depression and anger. While the abandonment of this economically crippling plan is important, it would be a mistake to believe that the end of cap and trade means that attempts to artificially limit fossil fuel use through government fiat in the United States are dead as well. The truth is quite the opposite. Without cap and trade, the federal government will have a much harder time grabbing a bigger chunk of consumers’ energy dollars in the name of promoting “green energy,” but that’s quite a bit different from saying that green energy initiatives are going away altogether. We’re already living with greenhouse gas reduction programs, and these programs will have a bigger and bigger impact on our lives and pocketbooks as time goes on.
Serious attempts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, through the use of biofuels and renewable energy and by increasing energy efficiency, kicked into high gear during the Bush administration. A decade later, we’re seeing the effects. Wendell Cox summarized the results of those efforts in an article he wrote for New Geography. According to a study conducted by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, per capita emissions of greenhouse gases in the United States declined by sixteen per cent between 2000 and 2009. That reduction is almost fifty per cent better than what the fifteen richest nations in Europe (the EU-15) could achieve in the same time frame, even though Europe has had a cap and trade program in place.
Environmentalists who are certain that mankind’s use of fossil fuels will turn the globe into a smelting furnace, have been winning this war for a long time. Losing cap and trade isn’t really much of a defeat in terms of their stated goal: to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in the industrialized world. But that didn’t halt the petulant reactions when environmental groups learned that Reid and company have given up on one of their pet projects. Take this one from David Hawkins, director of climate programs for the Natural Resources Defense Council:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today delivered very bad news to the American people. Continuing obstructionism by the Senate Republican leadership, joined by a handful of Democratic senators, is still blocking the way forward on essential clean energy and climate legislation. Over the recess we must deliver a message to senators: “Do your job! …. Don’t come home again without having tackled these real and present dangers.”
Advocates like Hawkins don’t ever acknowledge the remarkable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that we have already made. Nor do they ever recognize all of the steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that we have already taken: the regional cap and trade programs that are in place or soon will be; the fact that three-quarters of the states in the Union are already committed to making substantial greenhouse gas reductions through Renewable Portfolio Standards; the EPA’s plans to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions using the Clean Air Act; and the existence of all the subsidies that push wind power, solar power, and bio-fuel production, despite the relative expense of all three when compared to fossil fuels. It’s possible that an environmentalist like Hawkins doesn’t understand all that’s happened and will continue to happen, with or without a cap and trade program, but the more likely explanation for his sort of sneering reaction is sheer hubris. The tree hugging crowd is used to getting their way – they are protecting an entire planet after all – so they’re not going to suffer even a meaningless defeat gracefully.
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The pat of this that is most distressing is the science or lack thereof in support of AGW and even the "Greenhouse Gas Effect" itself. ALthough there are many environmentally damaging toxins released by the burning of "fossil fuels", most of those have been significantly reduced and they are being reduced further. The so called greenhouse gas effect is non-sense and therefore concerns about CO2 are nonsense. Read Dr Martin Hertzberg for scientific references debunking manmade climate change.
Cap and Trade may be dead as a bill, but Obama, through the EPA, will interpret existing laws in such a way as to achieve his "Green Economy" ideas. If the House is taken over by the Republicans, this should stop economically crippling "green" legislation from getting through Congress. 2012 is where Americans will hopefully look to correct the problem at the other end of Pennsylvania Ave.
Could it be the Reid and company are using the Muslim tactic of truce while losing, waiting for the opposition to return to peace, then renew the attack having regained the advantage.
The Reid group war plan is to make carbon based energy production more costly so that green energy production can compete. They are positioned to make tons of money after reaching their goal. BUT the carbon energy guys keep improving things making the Reid group objectives harder to reach. The will not stop, having so much invested to date.
Losing our Middle-Eastern oil fix is vital for our security. Actually, we do need alternate fuel source, but not at the destruction of our economy. We must slowly move to these alternative energy sources, and eventually their prices will decrease, just as computer prices decreased.
We must give some kudos to Senator Inhofe, the only one in the Congress who understands the fraud of the human caused global warming hypothesis and has worked hard to get the message out. I am sure his efforts to inform the Congress had an impact on this decision.
Mark is right. The global warmists have never produced credible observational data that shows: 1. that increases in atmospheric CO2 are due to human activity; 2. that increases in atmospheric CO2 has already caused global warming; 3. that Al Gore is not an alien from outer space.
The predictions of catastrophe come from crude ( at best) mathematical models of the climate system based on assumptions designed to prove the outcome the modelers want. The models start off assuming increased CO2 causes global warming and don't even consider the effects of the sun!
The fight is not over. The EPA has the power to further screw up the economy. At least there has been one victory for the good guys.
Since the last two budgets the administration has proposed includes a large expectation of revenue from a carbon tax, I don't expect them to drop this.
Samuel
Rich,
Don't turn your back on Reid and Co. It won't be the first time that they pretended to quit only to come back with 2000 pages of legislation and 15 minutes of debate on it before passage.
Cap and trade isn't just a sop for the environmentalist wackos. It enables the complete control of the country through the control of energy. They will never give up the attempt to attain that kind of power over the individual.
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Energy costs are going to be artificially and substantially increased next year either way. That will keep the economy tanked and the dp/msm will blame the GOP for it to attempt a congressional comeback in '12 and the reelection of hussein, who wouldn't stand a chance today. Strangling our economy in the hopes it will produce energy breakthroughs is a huge gamble. Sapping huge amounts of capital from the economy into an artificial market at the same time is just insane.