2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved - Telegraph

2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved - Telegraph

So my friend at anamericanidiot.wordpress.com posted a great blog about the global warming hoax. Fortunately for us all the Brits seem to be leading the way on the anti-global warming movement. This article is a good time capsule since it catalogs a point in time when the tide started to shift. I feel it will take a few more years for us to come to this realization here in the States. We now have an unadulterated, unabashed, global warming alarmist in the White House (well, not NOW, but soon). This guy is proposing a cap and trade system which he says will drive up energy costs and could bankrupt the coal industry if they try to build new plants.

In case you're not aware of the meaning of "cap and trade," I'll do my best to explain. Apparently, Obama wants to pass regulations limiting the amount of emissions any company can emit safely. That's the cap. If the company exceeds that limit, they will be fined. These fines will go to companies who emit less than their allotment. Essentially, the offending company is "trading" emissions with other companies. Obama's idea is to make the cap so low for some companies and the fines so high that they will either raise prices (which will of course stifle business) or force them into bankruptcy, if not in fact close altogether.

I know, I'm just an Obama-hater. No one would ever get elected with a scheme like this as a cornerstone of their energy policy. If they did have this agenda, they would keep this completely quiet so no one would ever know about it until they were in office and it was too late. Oh yeah. . .?!?



Let's pick up a couple of these points. First, he says that his plan is the most aggressive. This means that the "cap" will be VERY low and the "trade" will be VERY costly. He then brags about being the first one to advocate a 100% auction. This means the cap will be Z E R O!!! That is to say, the number one supplier of electricity to our nation will not be allowed to emit ANY "greenhouse" gasses!! That's when he says they can build new plants if they want to (which we will eventually have to do, or we will have to do with less energy) but it will bankrupt them.

Here's where the plan starts to fall apart. Obama believes that this will raise billions which he will spend on new technologies. The problem is as he has stated: that the heavy fines will stifle business so much that companies will not be able to pay the fines. This will, of course, require heavier fines, which will put more companies out of business. This is what always happens when you start taxing a behavior in order to raise money for some special project. If the goal of the tax is to raise money, it will fail. Sometimes I would advocate a tax if the goal is to curb a certain activity. Taxing an activity always reduces the activity. But if the goal is to raise money for new technologies, taxing the coal industry and others at such a high rate will cause havoc.

Our hope at this point is that he has surrounded himself with clearer heads. As usual, time will tell. I don't think the global warming hysteria has left Washington yet though.