Governor Schwarzenegger is in no danger of losing his reputation as one of the most foolish Governors in America. The very worst thing we could do is to let a bunch of ignorant politicians decide energy policy different for every state. This issue begs for Federal preemption.
The "man-caused CO2 emission global warming myth" is being rejected by more and more scientists as it is increasingly clear that this theory fails to predict future climate. Every forecast made by the U.N. panel has been completely wrong. But, forecasts made by those climate scientists who believe the sun controls the earth's climate have good predictive value based on sunspot activity.
Now, Environmentalists are demanding governments to levy heavy taxes, in the trillions of dollars, which will be diverted to carbon trading companies based on a theory which does not work. Al Gore is financing a lot of these trading companies and he is spending 300 million dollars in 2008 on commercials and in lobbying for strict laws demanding this expenditure. State Governments want this too because they will raise billions of dollars with these taxes and they think the electorate will buy it.
At the same time, Environmentalists are filing lawsuits to prevent any and all energy production projects: no new coal plants -- even if they are modern "green" plants, no offshore drilling, no arctic exploration, no hydro plants, no nuclear plants, no coal or oil-sands liquefaction, no wind-farms in good locations if anyone objects. And, then they say we are too dependent on Venezuela, Nigeria, and the Middle East for energy. Wind power and solar power are all that is left, but, the costs are three to four times the cost of traditional power. They take many square miles of wind farms or solar panels to produce as much energy as one coal plant. Traditional plants take less than a fraction of a percent of the space, and produce electricity at a fraction of the cost -- and we have hundreds of years supply of coal.
The Congress and the state governments know that the EPA wants to evaluate the science and make the right decision which, hopefully, will agree with those scientists whose theories of the solar variations work, instead of those whose theories of man’s CO2 emissions are a complete and utter failure. And, the International agreements like the Kyoto protocols demanding carbon controls have proven to be destructive of European economies, have raised energy costs substantially, have not reduced CO2 emissions, and have done nothing for the climate.
This possibility is really exciting because it means that CO2 is not a pollutant, and we don't have to spend a penny on fighting global warming -- because climate change is almost entirely natural and it is the sun making it happen -- and no one can change that. And we have always adapted to climate change and we can do it for the foreseeable future.
This possibility horrifies the Environmentalists and Al Gore because it would derail the billion dollar profits which carbon traders would skim from "green" taxes. Al Gore has the most transparent conflict of interest, and so does the UN panel who want increased funding and an UN global tax on energy. And so do governments and U.S. states. This is a mammoth gravy train for politicians, but it is not useful, or effective.
It is not an emergency, it never was, and never will be, and, besides, the earth is cooling since the year 2000, and the Environmentalists have no basis for saying it is just temporary, because they cannot explain why the other planets are warming and cooling the same way the earth is -- unless the solar theory is right and the CO2 theory is dead wrong.
There are food riots in the developing world caused by Today's energy prices which raise the cost of food. The Environmentalists' solution being foisted on us would double or triple the cost of energy and we would have food riots here as well. Leaders of 3rd world countries facing the starvation of their citizens call making ethanol from food stuffs a "crime on humanity." And ethanol is barely energy production positive because of hydrocarbons used in fertilizers, agricultural machinery, and in ethanol distilleries. Plus, it produces more CO2 by far than using traditional energy sources. Does raising energy prices that much with no prospect that wind power or solar can possibly fill the gap, considering the lack of ANY evidence -- never mind proof, that CO2 emissions have any measurable effect on climate make any sense at all?
It does, if you are a politician like Governor Schwarzenegger who thinks he can levy billions in taxes to balance the budget and does not care, or understand, that taxes will chase companies out of the state, cause unemployment, and cost tax revenues to fall, in this case, dramatically.
Now, it seems to me that the fact that CO2 is not the culprit, that we can continue to use coal, drive our SUV's, do more exploration for oil, use the 600 year's supply of North American coal and oil-sands to provide liquefaction to oil equivalents should be reason for dancing in the streets. But the Environmentalists, Greens, and Democrats think we need to suffer deprivation, hunger, unemployment, premature death of older people for some moral reason absolutely beyond comprehension.
In the year 2100 our descendants (with fusion power, hydrogen cars, solar energy 100 times more efficient than Today's) will say "those Environmentalists were like the Malthusians, and like the Luddites to think they should not use the hydrocarbon energy we are using today. They must have been insane."