The Real Danger Zone

by Gordon Cooper

From Broader View Weekly, September 11, 2009

First of all, let me say that I applaud my fellow columnist’s candor when he states his lack of credentials and his weak scientific background in the area of global climate change. I only wish that our legislators (and even our former vice president) shared his honesty. Sadly though, it seems that they feel as if their position of authority grants them authority to speak on every issue with the same weight of authenticity. That alone would be sad, but it goes from sad to bad when they pass legislation based upon that false sense of authority.
I would love to take the opportunity to debate the validity of the “evidence” used by Gore and others who take on the Chicken Little role, running to and fro, clucking about a falling sky and a shrinking ice cap. However, I feel this is not the place or time for that debate. Suffice it to say that for every expert they hold up, I could find two experts to stand behind me in opposition to them.
Also, before I go on, I must say that I truly love our planet, and I gladly pay the extra fees for my hunting licenses and ammunition to help preserve its natural areas and its wildlife. I believe she is one of the most unique planets created by our benevolent Creator. She is miraculously designed and wonderfully appointed for the purpose of sustaining life. I abhor any who would willfully defile her face or avariciously waste her resources. I am in favor of conservation and I would gladly add my voice in condemnation of those who pollute or destroy our environment.
My intent here is not to fight over who loves our earth more or who is most diligent in its protection. I am writing today to warn you of a very real and verifiable danger to our earth and to our economy.
I am speaking of the legislation passed by the House of Representatives this past June known as HR 2454, the Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Bill. By a narrow 219 – 212 vote, our representatives signed on to a bill that, according to Waxman’s website, would revitalize our economy with the creation of millions of “green” jobs (as opposed to what? Blue or red jobs?), increase our national security, and preserve our planet by reducing the pollution that causes global warming. Okay, sounds good, right? Well, let’s examine this legislation a little more closely.
To begin with, those three short premises listed above required over 1,200 pages of legalese to delineate and once again, as with the other voluminous bills produced by this Congress, few of the signees have taken on the responsibility of reading it before attaching our names, by proxy, to it.
I don’t have the space here to detail all of the dangers in this bill, so I will highlight a couple and hope it encourages a few of you to investigate my claims and to speak to our senators if those claims concern you.
This bill will create another large government bureaucracy that will oversee the daily operations of almost every business in our nation. This alone would stifle job creation and hinder productivity, when our nation needs an increase of both to help us out of this recession. The pages and pages of regulations and incomprehensible procedures would require most corporations to spend valuable employee hours and untold legal fees in an effort to comply with burdens that foreign competitors would not have to carry. This extra cost would be passed on to domestic consumers and, by extension, make foreign products even more attractive. Our economy would suffer and job losses would continue to escalate.
The target levels of CO2 emissions mandated by this bill are unrealistic for two reasons. The aim of the bill is to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuels to one billion tons from the 2005 benchmark of six billion. That relates to the level emitted during 1910, when our population was 92 million and per capita income (in 2008 dollars) was less than $7,000.00. Do they intend for us to return to those days?
The second reason this is unrealistic is the fact that even by International Energy Agency projections, the goal of 450 parts per million (ppm) on the global scale would never be reached, even if all participating nations reduced their ppm to zero!
In conclusion, it seems that this congress and administration are rushing this bill through without due research or discussion, just as they did with the stimulus bill, and as they tried to do with the health care bill. There is a tricky reason for this and it has to do with the upcoming Copenhagen climate conference in December. These lawmakers know that when Americans hear China and India refuse to limit their own emissions, we would be left holding the bag full of stifling regulatory limits upon our economy while our global competitors gleefully increase production and increase our corporate bankruptcies.