Fenger Pointing

Becky Fenger | October 15, 2008

Becky FengerIronies in emmissions trading

Finally there is some good news to go along with the horror stories of the manmade mortgage crisis. U.S. Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, informs us that it is very unlikely that any climate legislation will pass in the face of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Halleluiah. I’d like to think that politicians wouldn’t dare pass a bill that would make carbon-based fuels even more expensive while most of us are hanging on by our teeth.

As reported, U.S. House Democrats released a set of principles on Oct. 2 that outline an aggressive plan for greenhouse gas emissions, a plan even more restrictive (if that is possible) than the failed Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. That act, as you recall, would have created a cap-and-trade program allowing businesses to buy and sell greenhouse gas emission credits on the open market, allowing Al Gore to rake in even more gazillions than he already has from his clever but fraudulent trading scheme. According to the bill’s own sponsors, the Act would cost $6.7 trillion. Granted, we’re getting immune to the shock value of the word “trillion” these days, but holy moley. You and I would pay for it in even higher fuel prices, higher consumer goods, much more expensive heating and cooling bills, not to mention the increased cost of doing business.

Henry Louis Mencken, the “Sage of Baltimore,” could phrase things memorably. Before he died in 1956, he had politicians pegged. “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence clamorous to be led to safety,” he deduced. Al Gore internalized that goal and thereby profited handsomely.

Speaking of hypocrites who have taken Mencken’s theory to heart, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has come up with a doozy of a luxury 25-day getaway called “Around the World: A Private Jet Expedition.” For a mere $64,950 a person (the cheap rate) animal lovers will visit the Amazon Rain Forest in Brazil, Easter Island, Samoa, Borneo, Laos, Nepal, Madagascar, Namibia (it’s so “in” these days), and Uganda or Rwanda.

One of my favorite myth busters, Steven Milloy, has used WWF’s own “carbon footprint calculator” on their Web site to figure the ramifications of this jaunt of 36,800 miles in a Boeing 757 jet. He found it will burn about 100,000 gallons of jet fuel to produce roughly 1,231 tons of CO2. “That’s the equivalent of putting about 1,560 SUVs on the road during those three-plus weeks, and that doesn’t even include emissions related to local air, ground and water transport and other amenities,” Milloy chuckles. Yet, the WWF would have the peons using low-flush toilets, riding bicycles and switching to those cursed compact fluorescent light bulbs to “Join WWF in their mission to save life on Earth,” as their motto goes.

It would cost in excess of $44,000 to offset the carbon emissions from the jet travel alone, but WWF doesn’t make mention of purchasing any offsets. It’s “Do As I Say” all the way for these folks who had earthlings across the globe turn off all our lights for one hour in December of 2007 to symbolize our commitment to finding solutions to climate change.

Quoteworthy:

“Warren Buffett is romantically involved with tax hikes.”
Fred Barnes, editor of “The Weekly Standard,” 10/11/08, upon hearing that John McCain thinks that Obama-supporter Warren Buffet would make a great Treasury Secretary.

“The rich have a lot more money than they need. Why should we give them a tax cut? If they’re rich, they don’t need a tax cut.”
– Actor, author and retirement investment advisor Ben Stein, July 31, on Fox News.

“I’m amazed that most of the people I talk to are going to vote for Obama. They all believe that he is going to get them free education, free medical care, save their homes, stop their taxes, talk to world leaders and bring peace to the world, create jobs, stop global warming, free us from Arab oil and make the rich pay for it all.”
L. Griffin, who survived the California wildfires but holds in her portfolio AIG and Wachovia and banks at Washington Mutual. The irony is that Democrats almost exclusively caused our current monetary woes. Go figure.