For many months, NewsBusters has been warning readers that the hysteria being generated by the media and the Global Warmingist-in-Chief Al Gore concerning climate change would eventually begin to impact energy and economic policies.
Following last Thursday's landmark decision in Kansas to not give an electricity producer a construction license for a coal-fired power plant due to global warming fears, more than a dozen states are set to file a lawsuit against the Bush administration for holding up efforts to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from cars and trucks.
I kid you not.
As reported by the New York Times Wednesday (emphasis added throughout):
The move comes as New York and other Northeastern states are stepping up their push for tougher regulation of greenhouse gases as part of their continuing opposition to President Bush's policies.
On Wednesday, Gov. Eliot Spitzer's administration is to issue regulations requiring power plants to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions, part of a broader plan among 10 Northeastern states, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, to move beyond federal regulators in Washington and regulate such emissions on their own.
"I believe that states have to step into a void created by a failure of federal action," Mr. Spitzer said in an interview on Tuesday. "The global warming issue is one where the current administration has first denied the scientific evidence and only recently begun to discuss the matter in a serious way."
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, in a statement on Tuesday, said, "New York State is moving forward on all cylinders to take aggressive action to curb global warming from both power plants and cars."
Although this suit is aimed at power companies, it is being filed more to prod the Bush administration to capitulate on car and truck emissions. Still, the move could seriously impact coal-fired electricity producers:
The regulations will seek to cut global warming emissions from power plants 16 percent by 2015, but that reduction is based on 1990 emissions levels. The regulations will favor alternative energy approaches, like wind power, and will not be favorable for coal producers. The plan will both cap the amount of emissions permitted and force producers to purchase allowances for their carbon emissions, encouraging them to lower their emissions.
[...]
"Of course, the renewable energy companies love this," said Judith Enck, a top energy policy adviser to Governor Spitzer. "If you're wind, you don't have to pay anything. If you're natural gas, you don't have to pay a whole lot."
"Anyone who operates coal plants is going to hate it," she added.
Yes, and likely anyone that uses electricity to power a home or business, for such regulation is guaranteed to raise the cost of this necessity quite precipitously.
Moving forward, it was rather telling that the economics of this matter got little attention in this article, and not until the final paragraph:
"We don't want to put more burden on the rate payers of New York, and the last thing I would think this governor wants to do is send the message that investment should go in other states," said Gavin J. Donohue, the group's chief executive. "You can build plants in other states and send the electricity back into New York."
As NewsBusters has been reporting, the warm-mongers don't want the financial and economic components involved in this issue to take attention away from the hysteria they're generating.
As such, and unfortunately, the global warming alarmism since Gore and Company released their error-riddled schlockumentary in early 2006 is indeed impacting policy, thereby making it a metaphysical certitude that your state might be next to fall for the scam.
With that in mind, citizens across the fruited plain should be asking themselves how much more they're willing to pay for cars, trucks, and electricity all to solve a problem that has yet to either be proved exists or can be mitigated by anything under man's control.
Of course, it would be nice if media were also asking such a question so the public could be better informed to make their own decisions.
Or is that asking too much?
—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters.
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Comments Policy
Genesis 8:22
October 24, 2007 - 10:52 ET by mattmWhile the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Corporations are using this scam
October 24, 2007 - 10:59 ET by Daniel BakerStates are losing tax revenue because corporaions have lobbied them to give better tax breaks for being green. Greed is the name of the game for AGW
Evangelicals for Mitt
Suing Bush? Or, at least
October 24, 2007 - 10:59 ET by MikeBSuing Bush? Or, at least the Federal government? Are they insane? If a state feels so strongly in the issue, they can issue their own regulations. They don't have to wait for the federal government to do anything, they have their own legislatures. Personally, I'd like to see the generation plant owners get together and tell, say New York state, "You think we generate too much carbon dioxide and contribute to global warming? You want to tax or fine our output of CO2? Fine. We'll just pull the switch. You do without electricity for a while and see if it's worth it." Then, PULL THE PLUG. It would be best to do it during the summer, but any time would do it. No a/c, no street lights, no computer systems, no manufacturing, no lights in buildings, no traffic lights, no x-rays, MRIs or CAT scans, no radar for air traffic control, no police radio, no burglar or fire alarms, no anything that makes modern life so much better. Keep the electricity off until Elliott Spitter says "Uncle" and agrees to go on television (once the power is restored) and apologize to the generation companies and to read the British judge's ruling on Algore's movie.
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan
Yeah, but then they'd have
October 24, 2007 - 11:04 ET by mattmYeah, but then they'd have to actually do something, rather than just bitch-slap the president over what is nothing more than a red herring....
I agree.
October 24, 2007 - 11:21 ET by Dave in TexasNo kidding. I would actually like to see a few states allowed to implement this stupid legislation. Let's see how the residents of those states feel when their electric rates increase and they aren't allowed to by the kinds of vehicles they want to buy.
But, I strongly suspect that there's something else going on here that we're not hearing about, and that in reality these guys have something long term in mind that will allow them to suck more money into their states via lawsuits or something like that.
Harry Reid Blames Global Warming for CA Fires
October 24, 2007 - 11:15 ET by kwREAD THE ARTICLE HERE or you can skip it and read the last two paragraphs copied below.
“One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Tuesday, stressing the need to pass the Democrats’ comprehensive energy package.
Moments later, when asked by a reporter if he really believed global warming caused the fires, he appeared to back away from his comments, saying there are many factors that contributed to the disaster.
GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISTS? NAH, NOT US. WE'RE JUST TRYING TO SAVE THE PLANET. WHAT A CROCK...GLOBAL WARMING = TAXES
Boxers on Fire
October 24, 2007 - 11:25 ET by JimboAnd yesterday Barbara Boxer blamed the extent of the damage on the War on Terror. She made the argument that the CA national Guard is at half strength due to the war. Had it been at full strength, much of the damage could have been avoided.
Of course, she failed to say with any specificity how additional national guardsman could have stopped these fires in their tracks where 10,000 trained firemen couldn't.
Leon says "By the way, I'm not afraid of fat people, I'm repulsed"
Truth Monger Says - "Both are religions [Christianity & Islam], yes - with the same percentage of terrorists."
New York High Power Costs...keep it going Elliot
October 24, 2007 - 11:20 ET by kwTypical liberals continuing to ruin a great state like New York. Which by the way is very red except for NYC and Albany. I used to live in NY and work for Niagara Mohawk - the power company before National Grid bought them up. The biggest complaint from folks was the cost of electricity and gas. The rate payers were so heavily burdened by taxes imposed by the state on the power company, NY can take credit for some of the highest energy prices in the country. An example...National Grid Power pays over 90% of the taxes used for the schools in Oswego, New York since they have three power plants in the city.
Keep on going Spitzer...just like your buddy Mario Cuomo. Keep driving businesses and people out of your beautiful state.
The global warming myth was
October 24, 2007 - 11:25 ET by robert108The global warming myth was designed to impact federal, state and local politics and economics. It is an early step toward totalitarianism.
They are nuts!!!!! A
October 24, 2007 - 11:37 ET by USA4freedomThey are nuts!!!!!
A few weeks ago
I was parking my F-250 diesel in a parking lot, I was letting the turbo cool
down, (unless you want to get a new one fast, you will).
A woman in a small car parked next to me. She got out after
a few minuets of unbuckling her kid, and told me while I was straitening out
things in the bed of the truck, “your truck is running”. The first thing I
thought of was: No $hit, but then I thought, well.. she is just being nice.. I
told her thanks. She said: aren’t you going to cut it off? I said No. She
starts to tell me all about wasting fuel, and global warming, how for “the
kids” we have to conserve and protect the planet. I did not interrupt her,
finally she “ran out of gas..”(It’s hard to argue when you are the only one
talking). I told her I hope she was staying home for a few days because I
intend to use her share of the fuel and then some, while laughing. She grabs
her daughter hand and tells her: Well, a big truck, I bet he is a Republican and
selfish like all of them.. I yell as she is walking away: Small mind, and
ignorant, you must be a Democrat..
Man, was it hard not to drive over that small car..(or key
it)..
A bumper sticker on her car read: “Your Hummer looks
stupid.”
After I drove away from the lot (I did not even shop,
thinking she would key my truck) I realized she came over to start a argument
with me, I always park way out in the lot because the truck is big and it is a
little hard to work in a spot. There were plenty of spots closer. One day she
is going to mess with the wrong person..
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc.
Ronald Reagan- 40th Anniversary of D-Day
Driving up the cost of
October 24, 2007 - 11:37 ET by MidAmericaDriving up the cost of electricity? Punish the poor?
I see a great campaign issue to derail the dems in '08.
Pay up New York!
October 24, 2007 - 12:24 ET by okiehawk44You guys kill me -- you get what used to be called an "Indian Summer" (i.e. unusually warm autumn weather) and instead of enjoying it and the fact that you aren't paying for expensive home warming you and your governor (i.e. chief whiner) complain that it's Bush's fault. Go for a walk and chill out New York!
Lest we forget . .
October 24, 2007 - 12:32 ET by jdhawkLest we forget . . .
Additional levies on the power companies, no matter what the form, are additional levies on the users of their products. While this may inconvenience the power companies, they will fall in line with whatever blarney legislatures come up with and simply pass on the additional costs to the consumer.
So, that leaves us with how much are we going take of this nonsense? At what point does this BS issue take on the kind of threat that the recent illegal alien legislation did?
By the way, the northeast, in general, and New York in particular is a net loser of population - is it any wonder? That why we have so many "damn Yankees" here in North Carolina! :-)
JD, that is true only if
October 24, 2007 - 14:26 ET by MikeBJD, that is true only if the Corporation Commission, or whoever it is that regulates utilities in any particular state allows a rate increase.
Recently in one of the liberal states (maybe California or Minnisota) they tried to legislate a "non-pass through" rate hike on either utilities or corporations in general. I'm not sure if the proposal failed, or it is still being debated.
The problem is that utilities (in states that regulate them) are required by law to make a profit. It isn't much of a profit (3.x% I think) but a profit none the less. If a state legislature passes a non-pass through tax hike, then the state legislature will cause the utility to break the law by not making a profit. By severely limiting profit, the legislatures make it impossible for utilities to maintain and/or upgrade their infrastructure such as powerlines, pipelines, new generating plants, etc. So, in an attempt to show the socialists and professional victims among the population that they, the legislators are on their side and are sticking it to the evil capitalists, they are making certain that the regulated utilities will be unable to provide the services which everyone needs.
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan
This is perfect! I so hope
October 24, 2007 - 12:37 ET by BeowulfThis is perfect! I so hope three things happen:
State legislation passes to increase energy costs, which will be passed onto the consumer, who will (hopefully) get mad enough through actually feeling the pinch firsthand to get informed on the issue. Then we'll see Globull Alarming support go on a downhill slide rather quickly.
After being taxed and regulated to death, coal power companies (in the biggest anthracite producing region on the planet) close up shop and leave the states playing these games. The we can sit back and watch "green" alternative power step up to fill the energy vacuum (or NOT!). When people lose (or pay thru the nose to have) A/C in the summer, electric heat in the winter, start paying for cars that cost 2-3 times what they cost the rest of the country, are forced to pay sky-high power bills, and experience brown-outs on a regular basis (the main reason Gray Davis (D) CA was kicked out of office), we will also see AGW support plummet.
And finally, I sincerely hope this makes it to court. Unlike the empty rhetoric and fradulent media coverage, these morons will actually have to actually PROVE their assertions about Globull Alarming. As usual, these liberal dim-witted fools refuse to recognize precedent, as in what happened the one and only time AGW made it into court (Britain).
I anticipate a massive backfire right square into the AGW alarmist's faces, and I will sit back and enjoy every wriggle they make trying to cover their a$$e$.
If the libs want to make some real money, they should start charging admission to watch their ridiculous antics...
The Closed Mind Erects Strong Barriers
Similar lawsuit in
October 24, 2007 - 18:02 ET by ckc1227Similar lawsuit in California against car manufacturers was thrown out recently, as will these. What's next, suing the government for failing to regulate oxygen consumption? Or maybe they can sue termites, as they produce more CO2 than man.
These people are insane
October 24, 2007 - 20:15 ET by PopularTechThese people are absolutely insane. Al Gore is absolutely responsible for creating this hysteria and should be sued for it. How many more of these are we going to see before this hysteria ends?
Lawsuits:
Judge Dismisses Claims CO2 Emissions Caused Hurricane Katrina (NewsBusters)
Judge tosses Calif global warming lawsuit against automakers (Associated Press)
The Anti "Man-Made" Global Warming Resource