Sunday, April 25, 2010

Cap-and-Trade Treason


By Alan Caruba

If you thought that the way the Obama administration and its cohort of Democrats in Congress rammed through the takeover of the nation’s healthcare system was appalling, prepare to watch the same process applied to Cap-and-Trade. Your government no longer represents you, the voter, the citizen.

Cap-and-Trade (H.R. 2454) allegedly is about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but there is no scientific justification for this because there is no “global warming” that requires it, nor is manmade, anthropogenic, generation of carbon dioxide (CO2) a threat to the planet. Just the opposite, everything dies without it; all vegetation and all animal life. Life on Earth would thrive if there was even more CO2.

To what end would Congress impose such emission limits when they do not exist throughout China, India, third world “developing” nations, and are being abandoned by European Union nations where the Kyoto Protocol limits have harmed their economies?

Global warming has been exposed as a massive hoax and fraud. Why would the United States Senate proceed to enact a bill based on it? In essence, it will make some corporations, utilities, and people very rich and impoverish the rest of us.

Having passed the House, the Senate will be handed a huge bill that, like healthcare, few will have read before they vote. It will impose the largest tax the nation has ever seen.

The act will bless the various “exchanges” created for the sale and trade of “carbon credits” that have no value whatever. It creates a bubble comparable to the sub-prime mortgage debacle that triggered the 2008 financial crisis and resulting recession.

The amount of CO2 will not be reduced because the Earth produces 97% of all the CO2 in the atmosphere. Even then, that amount is the smallest part of the atmosphere that consists of more than 95 percent water vapor!

Cap-and-Trade is an act of betrayal because it will destroy the U.S. economy, destroy jobs, and further impoverish Americans in a variety of ways.

The Cap-and-Trade Act that has already passed the House will be put in play by Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joseph Lieberman. It was created in the House by Rep. Henry Waxman and Rep. Edward Markey. They know the bill will set in motion the destruction of the nation whose life’s blood is affordable and abundant energy use.

Just as the Obama administration moved swiftly to acquire ownership of General Motors and Chrysler, to take over insurance giant AIG, control one sixth of the nation’s economy through the healthcare act, and is now seeking to expand the regulation of Wall Street, Cap-and-Trade will ensure the destruction of the nation as manufacturing flees to other parts of the world.

Beginning one year after enactment, homeowners will not be able to sell their homes without complying with onerous and unnecessary energy and water “efficiency” standards. These standards, moreover, will increase annually. Within five years, 90 percent of the residential market will be controlled by the government.

On April 19, the Environmental Protection Agency announced new guidelines for “Energy Star” homes requiring them to increase “efficiency” by 20 percent more than those built to the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code. Home ownership, already the largest expense for Americans, will be further increased by required upgrades.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, in a few years the average cost of energy use to every family of four will be $6,800 per year. No one will be exempt from energy taxes and you can expect the cost of a gallon of gasoline to rise beyond $4 to European levels.

In Europe, industrial carbon quotas have enriched the continent’s biggest energy users such as steel and cement makers. Their surplus carbon permits, often provided for free, are estimated to be worth more than $4 billion at current market rates by 2012. There is no scientific justification for them.

It will be the U.S. government that will determine who receives the initial free “carbon credits”, thus giving corporations that have supported Cap-and-Trade a huge advantage over those who do not. Not only will the government rake in billions from the taxes to be imposed, but utilities will raise their prices and pass it along to consumers.

There is no need whatever to reduce use of so-called “fossil fuels.” There is no need for the “efficiency” and “conservation” measures that will be imposed. If the government would permit access to the nation’s vast reserves of coal, oil and natural gas, none of this would be needed, but it will not.

The nation is under attack from within by a consortium of fanatical environmentalists and rent-seeking corporations and utilities seeking to profit from these government mandates and limits.

It is the perfect storm. It is treason.

Editor’s Note: Politico.com: (4/24/10) The planned Monday unveiling of a bipartisan climate bill was postponed after one of its three authors, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said that he couldn’t support the legislation if Democrats moved it to the backburner to focus first on immigration reform. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) announced the postponement Saturday evening, saying that “external issues have arisen that force us to postpone only temporarily.”

© Alan Caruba, 2010

6 comments:

Unknown said...

The only hope I see is for there to be enough change in the 2010 elections such that both houses would have a 2/3 majority to overturn such as Cap'n'Tax over an Obama veto.

The net effect of Obama's overall program, economically, would make him a one-term president. (Or possibly bring on violence such as this country hasn't seen for 150 years.)

'Rat

Ron H. said...

>Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) announced the postponement Saturday evening, saying that “external issues have arisen that force us to postpone...”

Well, that's good news...I think. Does that that indicate disagreement among thieves?

>Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said that he couldn’t support the legislation if Democrats moved it to the backburner to focus first on immigration reform.

What BS! Such blatant political maneuvering! If it's a good idea now, it will be a good idea later. Obozo promised us "transparency", I guess this is what he meant.

Alan Caruba said...

Apparently they are fighting over who will be first to stab Americans to death by denying us access to our own natural energy resources while wasting billions on windmill, solar panels, and biofuels.

It is part of an agenda put in place from the day Obama took office.

The U.S. is being systematically deprived of energy by Obama and the Greens.

Guy said...

Yeah, and Health Care was to be put on the back burner in favor of jobs legislation too. Watch for a quick "about face" on this. Grahm will come up with some sort of bogus reason why he suddenly feels he needs to change his mind, and it will probably happen right in the middle of the immigration reform cramdown, when everyone is busy choking on that legislation. These bastards have figured out that giving the public time to react to their assaults has been their big mistake. From here on out, slick tricks and fast moves will be their tactics of choice ....

We need to throw every roadblock we can come up with in front of these traitors to slow them down, and then we need to crash them into the wall in November. If we fail, America as we know it may cease to exist ...

Travis sez said...

What are Tea Parties for? Really, we have to start organizing our friends and families, as Dick Morris has urged. People must be alerted, educated, and those of us who can must call the people we know and get organized. This is just as urgent as Mr. C indicates. He doesn't use the word Treason lightly.

LarryD said...

It looks like Reid is getting desperate about his re-election chances and wants to push amnesty to get the Hispanics in his district fired upso he can rely on their vote in November. Since the bi-partisan effort to pass a comprehensive immigration bill collapsed during Bush's term, and this effort will necessarily be slapdash, it's chances are vanishingly small.

Graham is pissed because this means his efforts on this bill are now wasted, Congress will never get to this bill during the current session.