Lies, More Lies and Global Warming Statistics

We all use and enjoy the benefits of carbon based energy. It is the affordable foundation of our health, wealth, standard of living and quality of life.

Bottom-line, the current cap-and-trade debate is about increasing the cost of energy in America to reduce use. In Utah, 90 percent of our electrical power comes from coal-based energy production. Waxman-Markey will increase your power bill by 50 - 100 percent. Imagine July in Utah and you can only afford to set your air conditioner at 85 degrees. Rural citizens use 58 percent more energy that urban residents. Cap-and-trade could further isolate them from health care and other critical services.

Increasing energy costs will hurt Utah and America's farm and ranch families and could damage our nation's future food security. Less than 1.5 million farmers and ranchers feed 300 million Americans and another 150 million globally. Food production is heavily energy intensive requiring electricity, fuel and fertilizer for planting, cultivating, irrigating, milking, harvesting, transporting and processing. For Americans to continue enjoying the safest, most abundant and affordable food in the world will require access to reasonably priced energy. Do Americans want to rely on China, India or Mexico to meet our most basic need?

The Waxman-Markey climate bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives was an embarrassment to America's public policy process and what the Founding Fathers envisioned in the Constitution. The 1,200-page bill narrowly passed on a 219-212 vote, only after 300 pages were added at 3:00 a.m. the morning of the House vote, a combination of political backroom deals and arm-twisting by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Before voting, do you really think any member of Congress read the bill?

Government picking winners and losers through carbon rationing or restricting successful energy technologies will ultimately damage America's free enterprise system and will weaken our global leadership. Starting new businesses or expanding existing ones will be more difficult in a carbon-constrained, cap-and-trade economy. Increased energy costs will ultimately reduce the use of coal and oil, but what energy source will plug the hole?

The scientific community is split on recent global temperature trends. In the 1970s, a cooling of the planet led to scientific concerns of another ice age. The 1990s warm up and former Vice President Al Gore's factually misleading "Inconvenient Truth" focused attention on anthropogenic global warming. Declining temperatures since 2002 have the alarmists morphing the global warming crisis into climate change, claiming both sides of the man-caused debate.

Is carbon fraud the white-collar crime of the future? Or should we all take comfort that Gore and Wall Street's Goldman Sachs are already lined up to manage the American 'market-based carbon trading system?' As Wall Street companies prepare to trade the 'thin air' be aware climate criminals are already cashing in globally on carbon credits and trading schemes.

Waxman-Markey provides U.S. dollars to foreign countries to purchase carbon credits for avoided deforestation and tree plantings. Money to be made from questionable practices or illicit carbon markets coupled with American companies desperately needing credits to offset emissions will be irresistible to organized crime.

Imposing unilateral cap-and-trade legislation that disarms our economy or places us at a competitive disadvantage in global trade makes no sense and is 'a fool's errand.' The burgeoning populations and economies of China, the world's premier carbon dioxide emitter, and India have both said no to emissions mandates.

Politically, Waxman-Markey supporters see the carbon credits to be sold by the federal government as the most significant revenue-generating proposal of our time and provides for a redistribution of America's wealth and resources.

America needs to do all we can to expand our energy portfolio. Continued reliance on Middle East oil does not make sense, and we all want clean air. Americans interest in energy independence and clean air should not be confused with a radical climate change agenda and costly cap-and-trade policy.