Cooler Heads Digest 11 September 2009

Announcements

Freedom Action is a new political advocacy organization that aims to create a gathering of grassroots free market activists that will make their voices heard above special interests and big government advocates. Freedom Action’s first project is to Stop Al Gore’s Electricity Tax, and can be found here.

Americans For Prosperity is hosting grassroots demonstrations against cap-and-trade energy rationing in cities across the country. Learn more about the Hot Air Tour by clicking here.

The American Energy Alliance has launched a four week American energy bus tour to build public awareness of what cap-and-trade is, how it works, and the extent to which it’s capable of inflicting serious damage to the American economy. Click here to learn more.

In the News

How Much Does Waxman-Markey Increase Gas Prices in Your State?
Nicolas Loris & Ben Lieberman, Heritage WebMemo, 11 September 2009

Global Warming Takes a Break
Lorne Gunter, National Post, 11 September 2009

Cap-and-Trade Cost Would Devastate Economy
David A. Ridenour, Sacramento Bee, 10 September 2009

Administration Shocker: Green Jobs Harmful
Chris Horner, Planet Gore, 10 September 2009

New Paper Shows Staggering Cost of Waxman-Markey
Iain Murray, GlobalWarming.org, 9 September 2009

Coal Miners Blast Cap-and-Trade at Kentucky Rally
Tim Hubert, AP, 8 September 2009

Why Natural Gas Should Not Play the Cap-and-Trade Game
Robert Bradley, MasterResource.org, 8 September 2009

I Pledge To Promote Global Warming Propaganda
Paul Chesser, American Spectator, 8 September 2009

Solar Economics
The Coyote Blog, 8 September 2009

News You Can Use

Energy Tax = Job Losses

Higher energy prices caused by the American Clean Energy and Security Act, H.R. 2454, would force businesses to shed 2.4 million jobs by 2030, according to a new economic analysis by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council for Capital Formation.

Inside the Beltway

Myron Ebell

Senate Action on Cap-and-Trade Fades into Next Year

The Congress is back, and Washington is humming again. That doesn’t mean that the Senate is moving toward a deal on energy-rationing legislation.  Cap-and-trade looks to be stuck for the moment as Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) tries to put together a health care rationing bill. That may well be wrapped up quickly, but news reports suggest that the Obama Administration wants the Congress to turn to new financial regulation legislation after health care. So it appears that energy rationing is slipping down the list. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Majority Whip, said that he thought it would now have to be put off until next year.

Is the EPA’s Economic Analysis Trustworthy?

Representative Joe Barton (R-Tex.), the ranking Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Representative Greg Walden (R-Oreg.) sent a letter this week to the Environmental Protection Agency asking the agency to explain several apparent problems and discrepancies in its economic analysis of the costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Read the full letter here.

California Waiver Challenged in Court

The U. S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Automobile Dealers Associations filed suit in the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn the EPA’s waiver that allows California to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new automobiles. The suit argues that global warming is a global rather than a local problem and that waivers under the Clean Air Act can only be granted in order to address local problems.

Around the World

Rough Road to Copenhagen

All signs point to failure at the 15^th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change this December in Copenhagen, where international policymakers hope to agree on a global warming treaty to succeed the failed Kyoto Protocol. Earlier this month, the United States Senate-which would have to ratify any treaty-again delayed action on a climate bill, and now Democratic Party leadership is saying that the Senate might not address global warming until 2010. The Senate’s inaction makes it difficult if not impossible for the Obama administration to commit to binding emissions targets in Copenhagen.

Also, there is still no agreement among nations on how to share the huge costs of reducing global emissions. This week the European Union announced that it was prepared to give $22 billion a year to “green” the economies of developing countries. Developing countries, however, are asking for at least 1% of global Gross Domestic Product, or about $500 billion a year, to pay for emissions reductions. Unless they get it, they won’t act. And without the participation of mega-emitters like China and India, global emissions will increase regardless what the U.S. and the E.U do to fight climate change.

The outlook for a deal in Copenhagen has become so bleak that dignitaries are actively lowering expectations. United Kingdom Foreign Minister this week told AFP that, “It’s a real danger that the world will not come together in the way that is necessary to agree on an ambitious and comprehensive deal in December.”

It Could Happen Here

• French President Nicolas Sarkozy this week introduced a new carbon tax on energy use, despite polling suggesting that two-thirds of voters oppose it.

• Last week a United Kingdom tribunal ruled that belief in manmade global warming had the same status as a religious conviction.