More news on the global warming front

This week the Senate debated yet another climate-control bill, though it got yanked Friday morning. So much for “the most important issue facing the planet.” Touted by former Vice President and (lest we forget) Nobel laureate Al Gore, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act threatened to cripple the economy with higher energy costs and hundreds of thousands of lost jobs. The bill called for a 70-percent reduction of greenhouse gases by capping the amount of carbon dioxide released by affected industries. Companies would receive emissions allowances that could be auctioned or traded on the open market, known as cap and trade.
Gov. Schwarzenegger claimed the bill and the “leadership of states such as California” would pave the way for national reform, while Boxer remains on the Bush-bashing bandwagon, blaming the administration for trying to destroy a solution to global warming. Apparently, neither has read the National Association of Manufacturers’ prediction that California will lose more jobs than any other state. Forecasts place Texas, Florida and Georgia among the hardest to be hit overall.
Supporters downplay costs using a speculative mix of conservation, expansion of energy alternatives such as solar, wind and carbon-free nuclear power, and the sale of emission-allowance credits. Bill Kovacs of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce points out the folly of their reasoning: “What is currently drafted just isn’t realistic.” Kovacs added, “Among the bill’s many flaws, the business community recognizes that the necessary technologies aren’t currently available to meet the demands of the bill. So while we reduce the use of fossil fuels, what energy sources do we use to run the economy until we develop and deploy new technologies?”
Republicans used parliamentary tactics, such as having the clerk of the Senate read the entire 491-page bill on the floor over a 10-hour span, to derail the legislation. They also hammered Democrats for proposing what would amount to an increase in the price of gas just as it approaches $4 a gallon. Finally, some backbone.
Reprinted from Patriot Post (http://www.patriotpost.us/)