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Tuesday, March 09, 2010

California cap and trade profiteers ignored 'the science,' and brought record unemployment and human suffering to millions

  • California's cap and trade system destroyed people whose only crime was being in the middle class.
  • As one economist noted, if state 'green' regulations were so smart and progressive, why did they need cap and trade? Answer: because it takes from the middle class and gives to everyone else.
"California's environmental vanguard approach is...in the midst of an economic downturn that has pushedMany other states and the federal government are watching closely. "Since 2007...

The regulations created

  • a cap-and-trade system,
similar to proposed federal global-warming measures,...
  • It's become clear to nearly everyone that the plan's backers

The environmental plan was built on the notion that imposing some $23 billion of new taxes and fees on households (through higher electricity bills) and employers

  • will cost the economy nothing,

while also reducing greenhouse gases.

  • Almost no one believes that anymore except for the five members of the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
  • This is the state's air-quality regulator, which voted unanimously in December to stick with the cap-and-trade system despite the recession.

CARB justified its go-ahead by issuing what almost all experts agree is

The study concludes that the plan "will not only significantly reduce California's greenhouse gas emissions, but
  • will also have a net positive effect on California's economic growth through 2020."...

The state finally discovered a do-good policy that pays for itself. ...

  • But there was a problem.

The CARB had commissioned five economists from around the country to critique this study. They panned it.

Harvard's Robert Stavins, chairman of the federal Environmental Protection Agency's economic advisory committee under Bill Clinton, told me that "None of us knew who the other reviewers were,

Mr. Stavins points out that if these regulations are a net boon for businesses and the economy, "why would you need to impose regulations like cap and trade?"

We have to "be candid about the real costs of the transition," a cautionary editorial advised. "Energy prices will rise, and major capital investment will be needed in public transit and new transmission lines. Industries that are energy intensive

The green lobby has lectured us for years that global warming is all about the sanctity of science. Those who question the "scientific consensus" on catastrophic atmospheric changes

  • Now, in assessing the costs, the greens readily cook the books and
  • throw good
  • science out the window."

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