There is no doubt in my mind that the government, both the Administration and Congress, is thoroughly corrupt when it comes to pursuing public policies based on the hypothesis that such public policies will prevent the hypothetical planetary crisis known as global warming.
Yes, it is a scientific hypothesis – unproven by direct comparison with historical temperature records or the use of so-called climate proxies such as tree rings, ice cores and ocean sediments. The basis for most of the dramatic projects lies in computer models using flawed assumptions and/or heavily manipulated data. These models fail to account for the historical temperature data for the last twelve years and the dire predictions have resulted in backtracking and restatements of potential effects.
The truth of global climate change seems to be ignored: that the Earth has been hotter, colder, with higher carbon dioxide concentrations and lesser carbon dioxide concentrations in periods when man’s industrialization and large-scale farming activities were negligible. Climate is cyclical and ever-changing and there is absolutely no reason to believe that this change is immediate or as dramatic as the alarmist portray.
Is the Government Accountability Office part of the global warming scam …
Like the Congressional Budget Office, the Government Accountability Office is an honest, reliable source of information. However, like all government-led and government-run operations, they report ONLY on what they are asked or use the assumptions which they have been given. Therefore, we shall assume that report has been politically compromised as it is addressed to Senator Max Baucus, the democrat Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, a known proponent of the Administration’s cap-and-trade agenda.
And while the report may be honest in its reporting, let us consider the source of its fundamental information …
“To address this objective, we reviewed and analyzed academic and professional literature produced by research organizations, academic institutions, environmental groups, and industry associations, including international research.”
There is no doubt that there has been a concerted effort on behalf of governments, educational institutions, scientists and the special interests to persuade the American public, and, by extension, the world that there is a need for public policies to address the subject of global warming. Opponents, including many well-credentialed and noteworthy scientists have been shut out of this debate or are too afraid to risk their funding and research projects to speak out against overwhelmingly powerful forces who are acting out of self-interests. Therefore, the initial review of the literature, at least when it comes to the subject of climate change and global warming, is severely biased towards the acceptance of unproven science and mere speculation.
Others used as source material include a pro-government, pro-socialist European Union which openly touts global warming in terms of wealth redistribution and other social and societal factors which have little or nothing to do with climate change. Again, examining biased data.
And yet more information was reviewed from those who are already engaging in emissions trading and who definitely have a money-based bias for expanding the program.
My conclusion is that the honest reportage of biased information is more likely than not to produce a biased report reflective of those who have the most to gain from this global warming initiative.
What did they say: Observations on Options for Selling Emissions Allowances in a Cap-and-Trade Program …
“Congress is considering proposals for market-based programs to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Many proposals involve creating a cap-and-trade program, in which an overall emissions cap is set and entities covered by the program must hold tradable permits—or ‘allowances’— to cover their emissions.”
This has got to be the sweetest scam in the history of the world …
The politicians are creating a system to sell you the very air you breathe at exorbitant prices.
First, the greenhouse gas known as carbon dioxide is a vital necessity of life. The gas is absorbed by plants which in turn emit life-sustaining oxygen. It is not a pollutant – unless the government decides to define it as such.
Second, the real and most significant greenhouse gas that truly affects weather is water vapor – clouds; which greatly overshadows the effect of any atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Third, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the amount of carbon dioxide dissolved in the oceans is somewhat constant; ever changing with the natural conditions. When temperatures rise, more carbon dioxide comes out of solution and enters the air. Which explains why the rise in carbon dioxide is not a causal factor in global climate change, but a result of warming oceans.
Fourth, carbon dioxide’s effects on global temperature are miniscule when compared to the Sun’s output, our orbit around the Sun, the Earth’s rotational dynamics, our volcanic activity, ocean currents and of course water vapor.
And fifth, it was necessary to choose “carbon dioxide” in order to control the production and use of energy – which, in turns, controls our economy and our lives. The government’s global warming plan is about wealth redistribution and control over social policy – the same things that we are finding out about the Administration’s healthcare initiative.
This is big business …
“According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the value of these allowances could total $300 billion annually by 2020. The government could either sell the allowances, give them away for free, or some combination of the two.”
The Wall Street Wizards, especially those with connections to Goldman Sachs, have the administration by the balls. So, imagine, if you will, a scam like the mortgage meltdown – creating and trading pieces of paper backed by mortgages. Only this time, these derivatives will be backed by nothing more than other pieces of paper, pollution certificates issued by some “official” agency in return for a piece of the action. Imagine the ginormous profits that the Wall Street Wizards will make creating and trading these bogus securities? Everyone wins, but the taxpayer who finds that the national treasury is being looted to provide subsidies (wealth redistribution) and the taxpayers who are seeing the fruits of the labor disappear into the pockets of unionized government bureaucrats and the special interests promoting this scam. Remember folks, that $300 billion is coming out of your pocket or adding to the deficit – those who trade emission credits produce nothing of value to our economy except paper profits.
Indulgences …
I cannot read the following paragraph without considering the indulgences sold by corrupt popes in order to permit the recipient to engage in both minor and major vice. Same deal with your government.
“Some existing cap-and-trade programs have experience selling allowances. For example, member states participating in the European Union’s (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) have sold up to about 9 percent of their allowances, and the amount of auctioning is expected to increase significantly starting in 2013. In the United States, the 10 northeastern states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) have auctioned about 87 percent of their allowances.”
Hobson's Choice: take it or leave it … pick one and shut up?
“This report is part of GAO’s response to a request to review climate change policy options. This report describes the implications of different methods for selling allowances, given available information and the experiences of selected programs.”
Again, starting with pro-trading literature …
“ GAO reviewed relevant literature and interviewed program officials from the EU and RGGI, economists, and other researchers.”
No recommendations – because the premise is fundamentally flawed?
Not only is the premise of being able to effect global climate change fundamentally flawed – but the concept of an auction among competing parties is also flawed.
Since the money being used by the bidder is not their own and the costs will be passed along to the taxpayers (subsidies) or the ratepayers (customers), there is little or no incentive to hold bidding down. Thus, increasing the profits for the government and the special interests cashing in on the trading scheme.
“This report contains no recommendations.
The method of selling emissions allowances can have significant implications for a cap-and-trade program’s outcomes, and therefore, it is important that the method be chosen based on well-defined goals.”
“Goals often cited by program officials and economists include: maintaining simplicity and transparency, maximizing participation, promoting economic efficiency, generating a price that reflects the marginal cost of reducing emissions, avoiding market manipulation, raising revenues, and minimizing administrative costs.”
Here I must scream “bullshit!” Those are the systemic goals of which only two are honest: “raising revenues and minimizing administrative costs. There is absolutely no proof that this scheme will affect the weather – either locally, regionally, nationally or globally. There is also no proof that this scheme will do anything to reduce local pollution which will continue to kill or sicken the local residents who are suffering from the pollution allowed by the government’s indulgences.
“According to program officials, it is important to identify goals prior to choosing a sales method, as tradeoffs may exist. Some goals may also be interrelated—for example, a simple and transparent design may boost participation and reduce the risk of market manipulation.”
Are they effin kidding me … the market is designed to be manipulated by those who are profiting from this scheme.
If you want to see the corruption in a bidding process, let us briefly consider the bidding process by which the Federal Reserve provides funds to banks.
On March 8, 2010, the Federal Reserve conducted an auction of $25 billion in 28-day credit through its Term Auction Facility. The interest rate was one-half percent, 53 financial institutions requested $3.41 billion dollars.
Who cares what the bid really was, the policy of the Fed is to channel money to the financial institutions at such an abysmally low rate that they could make a guaranteed profit by putting the money into other treasury securities, expand their credit card lending at 22.9% or simply lend money at the prime rate of 3.25 percent. Like shooting fish in a barrel.
So who cares what the auction results of these bogus indulgences yields. It facilitates the far left government’s wealth distribution scheme by picking the pockets of the taxpayer and giving subsidies to the poor. It enlarges government, raises taxes and curtails the energy habits (and lifestyle) of the average American. Reducing our standard of living to that found in Europe. Perhaps so the disadvantages of combining governments sometime in the future will be less of a shock to those who no longer have to view the disparity between how we live and how the Europeans live.
Bottom line …
To honestly assess the current state of climate science you need honest scientists and brokers; not scientists and politicians who are shading the results to advance their own self-interests and/or political agenda. As we have seen from the whistle-blower e-mails emanating from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University, scientists have made a muddle of the raw data, cannot provide the datasets leading to their predictions and have generally engaged in an attempt to alter the consequences of their work for media consumption. That is when they are not outright lying about their work and its implication or attempting to subvert the “peer review” process that has been the basis of scientific inquiry over the years.
In this case, it is clear to any rational thinker that the auction process is subverted by the very nature of the bidders. They have no real financial stake in the outcome, using taxpayer subsidies or ratepayer/end-user funds to purchase the pollution credits which allow them to continue their unconscionable polluting ways rather than mitigate the underlying problem.
The only beneficiaries of this plan are the government itself, the politicians who guide public policies and the special interests who capitalize on public policy for their self interests and self-enrichment.
This is a bad idea, proposed by dishonest people, which will do little or nothing to control pollution or affect the global climate. What it will do is further the subjugation of the American citizens who will be enslaved in a cycle of higher costs, less service and less personal choice and freedoms.
The solution is clear: throw these dishonest bad actors out of office and elect honest brokers who will serve the needs of “we the people” in an transparent, accountable and ethical manner.
It is your life, and the lives of your children, that is on the line in the upcoming election cycle. Vote as if your life depended on its outcome – as it surely does.
-- steve
Reference Links:
GAO Report Highlights:
CLIMATE CHANGE: Observations on Options for Selling Emissions Allowances in a Cap-and-Trade Program – Highlights |Government Accountability Office
CLIMATE CHANGE: Observations on Options for Selling Emissions Allowances in a Cap-and-Trade Program – Full Report |Government Accountability Office