FROM-NY POST
HOT-AIR 'CONSENSUS'
Memo to the cap-and-taxers on Capitol Hill, who want the United States to cripple its economy by "leading the way" on curbing carbon-gas emissions to halt global warming, or climate change, or whatever the term du jour is:
That's the message that came out of the latest G-8 summit in Italy, where President Obama hoped to reach a comprehensive international agreement on capping heat-trapping gases by mid-century.
Seems developing nations like China, Mexico, Brazil and India -- which are responsible for an increasingly greater share of global carbon emissions -- refused to endorse a proposal that would have them cut such emissions in half by 2050, with industrialized countries cutting theirs by 80%.
China, India, et al. understand that placing severe restrictions on their industrial output would bring their rise out of poverty to a shuddering halt -- and they have no intention of committing economic suicide.
No reasonable person would expect otherwise.
Still, without their support, any comprehensive climate deal would effectively be worthless.
Which is what the US Senate understood back during the Clinton administration when it unanimously rejected the Kyoto Protocol -- which placed binding emission-reduction targets only on developed countries like the United States.
True, the developing nations signed on to a statement recognizing that average global temperatures should not rise more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit -- but without committing themselves to reducing emissions to pursue that outcome.
As far as President Obama is concerned, that's a historic, actionable consensus on global warming.
But the Senate needs to read the fine print before signing on to a program that threatens to bankrupt our economy -- especially since so much of the rest of the world is unwilling to go along.
More...
No comments:
Post a Comment