Squaring the Culture

The Senate begins debate today on the Lieberman-Warner bill, which if passed would introduce a tax on greenhouse emissions from burning coal, oil, and natural gas. According to Fortune Magazine, infighting among proponents of the bill makes it possible that it would not receive even 50 votes in the Senate, let alone the 60 required to invoke cloture to stop any filibuster by the Republicans.

This is good news, to be sure: cap-and-trade introduces a coercive tax, a deliberate, artificial cost added to the production of anything that involves burning fossil fuels that will suppress the US economy for decades, until alternative sources of energy produce enough energy to replace fossil fuels. Since we now know that carbon dioxide itself does not force global temperatures to change, and carbon dioxide does not produce a “feedback loop” that amplifies the effect of atmospheric water vapor, the bill will accomplish nothing even if it works. Also, as several proponents of similar schemes point out, this particular bill does not cap enough CO2 to affect global temperatures even if the now-obsolete climate change models were accurate.

However, the news is not good enough. The bill has not been defeated yet, and we still need to flood our legislators with phone calls and emails demanding that they not unilaterally demolish the US’ productive capacity. There will be other bills later on, introducing the same, artificial costs to burning fossil fuels. All three of the candidates for President in 2008 advocate similar cap-and-trade schemes. The public still believes the bunk produced by the IPCC based on obsolete climate models, and still believes humans are causing catastrophic global climate change.

What the demise of Lieberman-Warner would buy us is a reprieve. We need to use the time to educate the public regarding climate change:

• The earth may not have been warming at all, and has been cooling for at least a decade;
• Human-produced CO2 does not force global temperatures up;
• The earth produces cooling clouds in response to increased greenhouse gases.

Do not let proponents of cap-and-trade fool you into thinking that their intent is economically benign. They’ve been saying for years that the cure for fossil fuels is to make them too expensive to use. The mechanism that makes cap-and-trade work is the discomfort caused by massive inflation. Short version: they want massive price inflation. They’re counting on it, and when they tell you “It won’t cost much,” they’re lying — it only works if it costs a bundle.

The economic facts don’t lie. There’s a reason we’re still using fossil fuels after 50 years of misanthropic environmentalist religion, and it’s not “fear of change.” It’s that fossil fuels are still, by far, the most readily available, most economically effective means of driving the world economy. The proof of it is that it takes artificial measures to make the price go up — like taxing CO2, which is not a pollutant, or refusing to allow oil production on American soil.

If you have not already done so, please visit American Solutions and sign the petition for their “Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.” campaign. This is a real solution. We have plenty of oil here in America, but Congress refuses to allow companies to develop it.

Update: For those of you looking for more specific information, Senator James Inhofe (R, OK) has a web site dedicated to facts and figures about the Lieberman-Warner legislation. Hat tip to Michelle Malkin for the link.