Viewpoint: Cap and trade bill will hurt American people financially

By David Trisler

Anderson resident

In the Sunday, July 5, edition of The Herald Bulletin, a guest viewpoint by David Yarnold diligently praised the “cap and trade” bill passed by Congress, and went on to list a series of partial and complete fabrications as to why this bill will save the world — all based on the false premise of “global warming.”

Here is the truth about this bill: The effect of this bill will be that the cost of heating your house is going up. In January 2008, in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Barack Obama said: “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket.” Furthermore, he said, “I’m capping greenhouse gasses, coal power plants, natural gas — you name it. Whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retro-fit their operations. That will cost money! They will pass that cost on to consumers.” So, even President Obama warns that his bill will severely hurt the American people, financially.

What is “cap and trade”?

Simply put, it means energy companies will be forced to buy credits from the government (at prices set by government) to produce emissions, which are an unavoidable byproduct of the refining process. The cost will be passed on to you, the consumer. Estimates vary, but the yearly cost to you will be somewhere between several hundreds to over $2,000! The poor will be hurt the worst and businesses will also take a substantial hit. To absorb the expense, companies will either quit hiring or begin firing. Many, especially small businesses, will have to close their doors. This will throw millions of Americans out of work. Any new “green” industries that might be created will not be able to offset the lost jobs for several years, if ever. Meanwhile, the biggest polluters on the planet, China and India, with no such environmental concerns, will go merrily on their way while Americans lose their incomes and possible their homes.

Mr. Yarnold went on to say that opponents of the Clean Energy and Security Act (cap and trade) are ... “so stuck in the past that they don’t even acknowledge the scientific reality of global warming....” What scientific proof would that be, Mr. Yarnold? It might interest readers to learn that the original charter for the Kyoto Accord, from which we arrive at the notion of “global warming,” was signed by 7,000 scientists, most of which did not work in environmental research. Since that time, however, more than 31,000 scientists have signed a petition stating that: “There is NO scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the earth’s climate.” This is the Global Warming Petition Project released in connection with the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine. Furthermore, there is evidence that the supposedly rising global temperature has actually leveled off and is now falling! This is according to NASA’s GOSS, UAH, RSS and Hadley — all global temperature tracking outlets.

So, why all the charade? A very good question! Mostly, it’s the money! Since 1990, over $25 billion has been spent studying global warming. That’s a lot of funding that scientists and special interest groups, like Mr. Yarnold’s Environmental Defense Fund, are not likely to want to give up. I challenge The Herald Bulletin to run a column by an accredited scientist (which Mr. Yarnold is not) to give an authoritative counterpoint to the false claims made by their guest columnist.

Now, what can we, American citizens, do to prevent the passage of a bill that is going to cost more than we can imagine? Contact your state representatives. Contact Sen. Evan Bayh via e-mail on his Web site or call his office (202) 224-5623. Also, contact Sen. Richard Lugar via e-mail or call (202) 224-4814. Tell them we do not want this ridiculous bill passed. Tell them that, if they want to stay in office, they need to vote no, when it comes up in session. Do it today!

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