President
Bush Outlines Greenhouse Gas Policy
Report
from Liberty Matters
February
14, 2002
President Bush announced today a new policy to address reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions. The president last year refused to comply
with demands that the United States cut back use of fossil fuels to 1990
levels, arguing that such a policy would place severe economic hardship
upon Americans. The new policy will focus on a gradual slowing of
so-called greenhouse gases, rather than the more draconian reductions
called for by the International community. Mr. Bush also voiced
objections that developing nations such as China and India were exempt
from the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. Members of the
environmental lobby complained that the plan to index greenhouse gas
emissions to economic output would only serve to allow the heat-trapping
particles to continue to add to the problem of “global warming.”
The president’s plan focuses significantly on tax incentives to
businesses, farmers and individuals to encourage the reduction of air
pollutants as opposed to mandatory cutbacks of the International global
warming Kyoto Protocol. Mr. Bush said the government in 2012
would reevaluate its success in cutting greenhouse gases and consider a
new, possibly tougher system.
Bush
Offers Alternate Pollution Plan
Another Study Debunks Global Warming
Global Warming fear mongers point to melting ice caps in the Antarctica as
proof that the world is rapidly warming and soon islands in the Pacific
will disappear under the waves. Two
new studies of temperatures and ice cap movement in that same area
indicate that is not the case. In fact, Antarctica is
becoming colder. Dr. Peter Dorman and his team of scientists have
determined that since 1986, temperatures have been dropping an average of
1.2 degrees Fahrenheit per decade and similar downturns have occurred
since 1978 in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of east Antarctica. When
the scientists noticed that “glacial ice wasn’t melting, streams
weren’t flowing, lakes were shrinking and microorganisms were
disappearing, they decided to expand their data collection and discovered
that “Antarctica as a whole had gotten considerably colder." The
study seems to confirm what 17,000 scientists have previously determined;
there is no “global warming.”
Guess What?
Antarctica's Getting Colder, Not Warmer
Full Steam Ahead
Never mind scientific studies to the contrary, proceed full speed to
implement the Kyoto Protocol, say some politicians. Fearing their
state will collapse from the effects of impending global warming, leftist
California politicians are backing legislation requiring “the state Air
Resources Board to adopt by January 2004, regulations that achieve the
‘maximum feasible and cost-effective reduction’ of carbon dioxide from
cars and light trucks…” Although carbon dioxide is not a threat
to human health nor does it form smog and there are no scientific
standards to support the proposed regulations, politicians say it is
better to err on the side of caution. Former Sacramento Mayor Phil
Isenberg, now a lobbyist for the alliance of Automobile Manufacturers,
exposed the folly of the bill, saying; “There’s a grand
commotion about global warming, but we’re not about to buy into a
regulatory program based on whimsy.” In Texas, a group of
environmentalists are attempting to implement the Kyoto Protocol by
slipping regulations into the back door. They have petitioned the
Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission to consider requiring
“reductions in the amounts of C02 emissions from all sources: cars,
trucks, power plants, and manufacturing. The Commission’s findings
prompted TNRCC Executive Director to recommend that the federal government
require increased vehicle fuel efficiency along with development of hybrid
vehicles and alternate fuels, among other suggestions. The efforts
to implement Kyoto continue despite a lack of scientific evidence to
support its claims.
Radical Enviro
Groups Push to Enact $35 Billion Energy Tax on Texas Texas
Regulators Enter The Global Warming Fray...
PLF Files Suit Against San Francisco
The Pacific Legal Foundation has taken a case on behalf of Tom and Robert
Field, the two owners of a small hotel located in San Francisco. The
owners of the 95 year-old San Remo Hotel had rescued the historic building
from destruction and spent over $1 million to restore it to its former
Victorian charm. Instead of showing gratitude to the brothers and
other entrepreneurs for restoring the city’s nasty eyesores, San
Francisco city officials enacted an ordinance requiring them to set aside
a significant number of rooms for the homeless. For example: only 27
rooms of the restored Cornell hotel could be reserved for tourists, while
31 rooms must go to the indigent. The City allowed the hotel-owners
to be released from the requirements for a small fee - $600,000 in one
case and $567,000 in another. The Field brothers paid the fee under
protest, but then sued the City. The City claimed the owners
must share costs for housing those displaced by the renovations of the old
hotels, but that argument seems to ignore the U.S. Constitution, as well
as, the benefits the City will accrue from added revenue from tourism.
The California Supreme Court heard the case, December 6, 2001, but as of
the date of this story, has not ruled.
Small
Hotels: San Francisco's Scapegoats for Housing the Homeless
Public Supports Wildlife In Word Only
A new poll conducted by Ducks Unlimited indicates the public likes
wildlife, all right, but not enough to donate money on its behalf.
In fact 63 per cent could not name one organization dedicated to wildlife
and natural resource conservation, while 82 per cent said they were not
members of, nor had they donated to any such organization in the last two
years. Fifty seven per cent couldn’t identify any non-government
organization that protects the environment. The radical greens
continue to lobby politicians with figures indicating saving the
environment is the overriding concern of the American public. Maybe
it is, as long as the price is paid with other people’s money and
liberties.
Americans
Interested In Wildlife But Do Not Donate
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