Correcting Energy Misperceptions

Here's a great idea...let's ask a real expert rather than a failed former Vice President or some brainless Hollywood moron!

How about that?

Despite this sort of egregious reliance on facts and reality -- how dare she! -- the Democrat-controlled Congress is moving ahead with strangling America's entire energy industry:

The Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill seeks to combat global warming by forcing down emissions of greenhouse gases, chiefly carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuels. Since these fuels – coal, oil, and natural gas – currently comprise 85 percent of our energy supply, and the proposal seeks to reduce them by fully 83 percent by 2050, it amounts to nothing more than a massive energy tax in disguise. In other words, it will drive up energy prices high enough so that consumers and businesses are forced to use less and thus comply with the targets. A Heritage Foundation analysis of last year’s less stringent Lieberman-Warner bill estimated $1.7 to $4.8 trillion dollars in GDP losses by 2030, or $949 to $3,726 per household per year.

And what do we get for our money in terms of global warming avoided? According to a calculation by climatologist Chip Knappenberger, the temperature reduction by 2100 would be between 0.1 and 0.2 degrees C by 2100. And this generally assumes a significant amount of global warming, when in truth the science is taking a decided turn away from such alarmism.

By the way, the American people are rejecting this notion of man-made global warming by more and more vast numbers. That's why the Dems need to push this through so quickly - the longer they wait, the more their piddly support evaporates even more. Thus, the standard Democrat tactic: ditch the American people and do it anyway!

“Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman plans to fast-track his controversial climate change bill, bypassing the political hurdles of the subcommittee.

‘I’m still holding firm on my deadline to get a bill out of committee by the end of May and I believe that will probably require us to go right to the full committee and bypass the subcommittee,’ Waxman told reporters.

Democrats on the committee said the expedited timeline was necessary to pass a bill out of committee by the Memorial Day recess – a deadline set by Waxman and encouraged by the administration, which wants the committee to be ready to move on to health care reform this summer.

Fast tracking this bill also has some political advantages. The subcommittee is a tougher battleground than the full committee, largely due to its geographically diverse makeup and tighter margin.”

Heritage has this to say about Waxman's actions:

Passed legislation should not be set by an artificial deadline. We elect Members of Congress for a reason: to debate and carefully analyze legislation to fully understand the consequences. If this bill were so cut and dry, it would be an easy decision but the fact that Democrats and Republicans alike have serious reservations should tell us something.

Put simply, there’s a lot wrong with it and that’s most evidenced by its high economic costs. Recent Congressional Budget Office testimony that a 15 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, a target that the Waxman-Markey proposal would reach within a decade, was estimated to cost the average household $1,600 per year.

A brief look at Europe shows us beyond doubt that this system absolutely doesn't work. That's why they pay several times the per-gallon cost for gasoline, among other things.

It's a disaster, and Europeans know it. Americans also know it, which is why only 1 out of 3 attribute climate change to man-made causes. Too bad Congress is a bunch of moronic morons.

There's my two cents.