Posted by
Rocky Mountain Foundation on Thursday, December 04, 2008 12:00:00 AM
The following article by Rocky Mountain Foundation president John Dendahl was published December 4, 2008 at the top of its editorial page by the Rocky mountain News.
Two university professors writing in the Rocky (“The cure for carbon,” November 22) on climate change got one thing right: cap-and-trade programs are a looming economic disaster.
Though probably inadvertent, give them further credit for predicting that Barack Obama’s election will give debate about climate policy “a much needed boost.” How often have we heard from Al Gore et al that the debate is over? It’s just now getting warmed up.
The professors are jubilant about Obama’s plans for $150 billion to develop carbon-free energy technologies.
The “carbon-free” fad is where we are today in a massive international scheme of deception. Its origins among a few scientists may have been honest enough, but the status today is partly fraud (Gore’s movie is evidence) and partly politicized science driven by an unholy combination of ideology, government funding and corporate appeasement.
Winston Churchill observed in a slightly different context, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” Xcel Energy and ConocoPhillips are companies prominent in Colorado that are carbon hysteria appeasers.
The citizens of Colorado are being asked to pay dearly in at least two ways.
One, we have a political establishment, dedicated to environmental extremism (for starters: a governor, one U.S. senator soon to be two, and a utility regulatory commission), that decrees Coloradans must pay a very high price to subsidize fledgling energy sources like wind and solar.
Two, the anti-carbon crazies are asking us to forego untold billions – an understatement if shale oil possibilities are considered – in tax revenues from producing the state’s enormous hydrocarbon resources (oil, gas, and coal).
Climate scientists won’t even agree as to whether average temperatures today are rising or falling. Wouldn’t that be more evidence of the utter stupidity of too many politicians? They would lead us into ruinously expensive climate “fixes” when they don’t even know whether it’s broken or how.
Wake up, neighbors. Ignorance is the poisonous byproduct of the snake oil we’re being sold, and it’s a far greater threat today and tomorrow than is climate change.