Posted by
Defend America on Thursday, July 02, 2009 12:52:59 PM
A Garden of Piggish Delights
Waxman-Markey is part power-grab, part enviro-fantasy. Here are 50 reasons to stop it.
By Stephen Spruiell & Kevin Williamson
The stimulus bill was the legislative equivalent of the famous cantina scene from Star Wars,
an eye-popping collection of the freakish and exotic, gathered for
dubious purposes. The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, known as ACES
(the American Clean Energy and Security Act), is more like the third
panel in Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights — a hellscape that disturbs the sleep of anybody who contemplates it carefully.
Two
main things to understand about Waxman-Markey: First, it will not
reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, at least not at any point in the near
future. The inclusion of carbon offsets, which can be manufactured out
of thin air and political imagination, will eliminate most of the
demands that the legislation puts on industry, though in doing so it
will manage to drive up the prices consumers pay for every product that
requires energy for its manufacture — which is to say, for everything.
Second, it represents a worse abuse of the public trust and purse than
the stimulus and the bailouts put together. Waxman-Markey creates a
permanent new regime in which environmental romanticism and corporate
welfare are mixed together to form political poison. From comic
bureaucratic power grabs (check out the section of the bill on
candelabras) to the creation of new welfare programs for Democratic
constituencies to, above all, massive giveaways for every financial,
industrial, and political lobby imaginable, this bill would permanently
deform American politics and economic life.
The House of Representatives, famously, did not read
this bill before passing it, which is testament to either Nancy
Pelosi’s managerial incompetency or her political wile, or possibly
both. If you take the time to read the legislation, you’ll discover
four major themes: special-interest giveaways, regulatory mandates
unrelated to climate change, fanciful technological programs worthy of The Jetsons,
and assorted left-wing wish fulfillment. We cannot cover every swirl
and brushstroke of this masterpiece of misgovernance, but here’s a
breakdown of its 50 most outrageous features.
SPECIAL-INTEREST SOPS
1.
The big doozy: Eighty-five percent of the carbon permits will not be
sold at auction — they will be given away to utility companies,
petroleum interests, refineries, and a coterie of politically connected
businesses. If you’re wondering why Big Business supports
cap-and-trade, that’s why. Free money for business, but higher energy
prices for you.
2. The
sale of carbon permits will enrich the Wall Street investment bankers
whose money put Obama in the White House. Top of the list: Goldman
Sachs, which is invested in carbon-offset development and carbon
permissions. CNN reports:upping emissions of nitrous oxide
— a much more powerful greenhouse gas. The practice also makes weed
control more difficult, meaning that it supports the market for
herbicides such as Monsanto’s RoundUp. Guess who’s spending millions
lobbying for no-till?
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTc1MmVhMGYxY2UzNzAwMTJlODBjZjg2NDJjNmM2MWE=&w=MA==