Proposed cures for "dangerous" climate change are akin to eighteenth century medicine
By Paul Driessen

This month marks the 109th anniversary of George Washington's death, at the hands of his physicians. They drained him of a quart of blood, in an attempt to eliminate the impurities that they believed were causing his malaria and throat infection.

Now a number of politicians, regulators and activists appear ready to bleed the energy and financial lifeblood from the American economy - in the midst of a recession, and in the name of removing carbon dioxide "impurities" from the air and preventing catastrophic climate change.

My op-ed this week addresses these issues, and explains how these anti-energy policies would hurt our nation.

Sincerely,

Paul

Paul Driessen
Senior policy advisor, Congress of Racial Equality and Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow
Telephone 703-698-6171

A few hours later, Washington died - from a cure far worse than the disease.

Today, our nation is in a recession. Millions are unemployed. The financial services, housing and stock market meltdown has hammered incomes, consumer spending, college and retirement savings, profits, tax revenues, charity, remittances and foreign aid. Europe, Asia, Canada and Australia are also reeling, and Mumbai again showed how terrorists can disrupt lives and economies.

Congress and the White House have responded with promises to spend $1 trillion or more, to bail out banks, homeowners, taxpayers, auto makers and other beleaguered groups; fix roads and bridges; and weatherize buildings, develop renewable energy and create "green jobs."

The economic situation is so dire, says President-Elect Obama, that we can't worry about deficits. The "patient" needs a large "blood infusion" stimulus to "get the economy moving."

But the proposed infusion is artificial blood: government loans, grants, mandates and massive debts for our children - experimental treatments that haven't worked in the past, and are unlikely to work now. Reduced taxes and regulations would stimulate many more private sector initiatives and jobs; but those curatives have little support among current political leaders.

Worse, there is a real danger that the stimulus actions will be followed by the economic equivalent of medical practices that killed our first president.

The appointment of moderate economists to the Obama team cheered markets. However, energy and environmental appointments and proclamations underscore an agenda of higher taxes, more regulations and other malpractice that will ensure reduced investment, increased layoffs, shorter work weeks, and more families forced to choose between heat, food, medicine, gasoline and saving.

Precluding access to oil, gas, coal and uranium would deprive America of fuels that produce 93% of the energy that makes jobs, living standards, food, health and transportation possible. It would force us to continue spending our children's inheritance on foreign oil - and forego trillions of dollars in leasing, royalty and tax revenues that could help pay for defense, stimulus, renewable energy, low-income energy and other programs.

Even more extreme bloodletting could be administered in the name of global warming. Mr. Obama wants a stringent cap-and-trade program, to slash carbon dioxide "impurities" by 80% by 2050. He says any company trying to build a coal-fired generating plant will be "bankrupted" by greenhouse gas fees.

If Congress fails to act expeditiously on cap-and-trade, the Obama Administration could unleash the Environmental Protection Agency's newly proposed rules - and regulate virtually our entire economy under the Clean Air Act. Those rules would immediately impose even more draconian restrictions on carbon dioxide and methane released from almost every office and apartment building, power plant, factory, farm, hospital, school, car maker and dealership, train and airline in the nation.

Two dozen mostly Southern and Midwestern states depend on coal for 47-98% of their electricity. Their utility bills are half of what business and residential consumers pay in many less-coal-dependent states. That translates into cheaper manufacturing, more jobs and better living standards.

Nationwide, half of our electricity is generated with coal - most of it in power plants whose pollution is 95% below 1970 levels (per unit of energy). That's a far cry from the 1% of US electricity generated with wind and solar power.

Raise the rates - and manufacturers, businesses, communities and families will be battered. Destroy our wealth-generating capability, and there will be little left to redistribute or invest in renewable energy.

Restrict hydrocarbon energy use in minority areas, and black, Hispanic and Native American families will see their economic opportunities and civil rights rolled back. People will die, if they cannot afford proper heating, air-conditioning, nutrition and medical care.

A cap-and-trade bill like Warner-Lieberman would cost 3 million U.S. manufacturing jobs and $7 trillion in lost GDP, as the bills slap increasingly heavy taxes on hydrocarbon energy, the Heritage Center for Data Analysis calculates. The EPA regulatory regime would be even more onerous and costly.

Either action would drain the energy lifeblood from our economy, prolonging the recession and killing jobs, for little environmental gain.

Many scientists and politicians say we are heading for climate disaster. But thousands of scientists vigorously disagree. A US Senate Minority Report features 650 climate experts (including many current and former UN-IPCC scientists) who say there is no evidence to support climate cataclysm hypotheses.

Computer models and worst-case scenarios are not evidence - and not one of them has accurately predicted climate conditions even one year into the future, much less fifty. Actual, measured temperature, hurricane frequency and intensity, floods, droughts and sea level changes are completely within the realm of observed variability over the centuries.

Satellite measurements show that planetary warming stopped in 1998, even as global CO2 levels continue to rise. Even eliminating US greenhouse gases would reduce 2050 global temperatures by only 0.2 degrees F, assuming CO2 controls our Earth's constantly changing climate.

China and India are building new coal-fired power plants every week - and their expanding greenhouse gas emissions now dwarf even the economy-killing cuts that climate alarmists are proposing. Europe's emissions are well above 1990 levels and even further above their promised reductions under Kyoto. Yet the Poznan agreement delays and dilutes EU pledges even more, to avoid jeopardizing jobs in a hydrocarbon-dependent Europe.

Presidents and members of Congress violate their oaths of office, when they try to impose destructive policies that advance the agendas of professional activists who remain fixated on climate disaster scenarios, despite real-world evidence to the contrary - and regardless of the grievous harm that their "cures" would impose on poor, elderly, minority and working-class families.

Americans everywhere should demand solid evidence, robust debate, honest congressional hearings, and responsible energy and environmental decisions. We need to prevent further economic bloodletting, preserve freedom and opportunity, and restore our nation's prosperity.

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Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Congress of Racial Equality and Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow.