Observations from North Carolina

Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch

A few of my John Locke Foundation colleagues have noticed an AP story about the final day of the annual meeting of the Southern Governor's Association, in which members "are working on a comprehensive plan to reduce the South's carbon footprint and create jobs." More:

"This is a real opportunity for us," Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (pictured) said Monday during the closing day of the Southern Governors Association conference at the Greenbrier.…

Many of the region's universities, including the University of Kentucky and Duke University in North Carolina, are eager to assist with research, officials representing both institutions told the governors.

As my friend Jon Sanders wrote, "RENT SEEKERS!"

Meanwhile JLF vice president for research Roy Cordato addresses the John McCain/Elizabeth Dole approach on offshore drilling for oil, calling it "ignorant at best and dishonest at worst," saying also:

Combined with the position that they hold on global warming policy, that is, they favor a federally enforced cap on CO2 emissions, the implication is that they are in favor of finding new oil but against using it. The cap and trade program that they both favor would put a limit on the amount of oil that Americans are allowed to use, and then force us to ration that amount through a government devised and enforced trading scheme.  At the present time we have a government created scarcity of oil due to legal restrictions on  oil drilling and exploration. Dole and McCain would eliminate those restrictions but continue the government contrived scarcity by limiting the amount of oil we can use.

Roy adds that while Barack Obama's position is no better, he at least is consistent.