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NTF
Issue Paper: Cong21. 2-02. NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS FOR FREEDOM ISSUE PAPER: THE
KYOTO PROTOCOL. They’re
baaaccckk!!! Enviro-radicals want
to push Kyoto II through the Senate. President
Clinton had urged Senate ratification of the initial protocol.
In 1997, delegates from many countries met in Kyoto, Japan, to construct
a treaty to erase the possible threat of global warming, a premise debunked by
most scientific experts in climatology. If
the U.S. Senate approves this treaty, we would have to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, mostly carbon dioxide and methane, to 7% below 1990 levels by 2012,
an unachievable feat. We would have
to cut energy use by 20%. President
Bush opposes signing Kyoto II, but congressional liberals still promote it. The
Bush Administration counter-proposed several rational and realistic
modifications that would have ensured a reduction in greenhouse gases while
minimizing economic impact, but domestic and foreign treaty proponents ridiculed
this offer. He prefers phasing in
rules that offer market-based incentives to help industries minimize the costs
and hit target dates to lower pollution emissions.
Without Senate approval, the treaty will fail. SPURN
KYOTO TREATY. The
cost of reducing only C0 2 to treaty specifications would cost 4.9 million jobs,
according to Standard & Poor. Job
losses will hit each state; NE will lose between 50,000-100,000 slots. Jobs will go overseas. Yearly
reduction in GDP will hit $318 billion, or 4%.
Lost GDP by 2010 might reach $440 billion.
The feds would sell permits to industries that produce greenhouse gases
to permit them to shift costs to consumers by raising retail prices.
We all will pay higher prices for products and services requiring energy
for production or transportation. Rules
would mandate new taxes on vehicle gas of 68c or more per gallon.
Gas prices would rise 53%. The cost of electricity will rise 86%, home
heating oil by 70%. Average annual household income will drop almost $2,700.
Our cost of living would spike, while wages fall by 10-15%.
Our poorest citizens, who have the least amount of disposable income,
would suffer the worst. The protocol ignores basic free market principles and
will ensure international recession, including higher unemployment in our
mining, oil refining, and vehicle manufacturing industries.
Already it is very difficult for American companies to compete against
foreign companies in the global market. Our industries will pay heavily for
additional expensive pollution control equipment, altered production lines, and
monitoring devices, and face hefty fines if accidentally exceeding pollution
limits. High energy consuming
industries would move to 3rd World nations like Red China, not
required by this protocol to reduce or decelerate the rate of increase of their
greenhouse gas emissions, taking jobs and taxes with them.
Firms based in 3rd World nations could use cheaper labor to
produce cheaper goods and enjoy zero restrictions and regulations on their
levels of greenhouse gas emissions. This
structural trade imbalance would bankrupt U.S. companies yet ensure that gas
levels would continue to rise worldwide. Third
World nations could continue to heavily pollute greenhouse gases, pollute
themselves to prosperity, while we cut our emissions.
The EPA will yoke vehicle owners with a host of new regulations, like
mandatory car pooling to work, new exhaust pipe tests, and permanent annual
penalties on owners of trucks and SUVs. Limiting
the number of industrial pollution permits would limit gas emissions but prove
costly as business passes the cost along to consumers in the form of higher
energy prices. Business production
cost hikes will mean higher prices for customers for products made from steel,
chemicals, paper, and glass. Higher
costs cause inflation and then higher interest rates.
Backyard grills and lawn mowers will absorb new, expensive regulations.
Higher food prices will occur, with more spending on food stamps and
other welfare handouts. If you think government regulation is intrusive now, the
treaty would give license to congressional liberals to monitor, tax, regulate,
or ban all activity that consumes energy or produces greenhouse gases. Americans
alone would pay for 2/3rds of global
costs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Third World excused for reasons of
poverty. In July, 2001, President
Bush presented his own plan for voluntary CO2 emissions cuts.
ITS
COST. The
U.S. Dept. of Energy concluded that Kyoto provisions would result in hundreds of
thousands of lost jobs in the manufacturing sector, decreased production, failed
enterprises, lower gross domestic product, and higher consumer prices.
CLIMATIC
TRUTHS. The
U.S. Energy Dept. predicts that global CO 2 gases would rise by 32% by 2010,
even though the U.S. and other industrial countries reduce emissions to 1990
levels, because 3rd World nations have no requirement to reduce or
slow growth in their emissions. CO
2 remains in the atmosphere for decades, so each annual emission is only a tiny
percentage of the total CO 2 in the atmosphere.
Therefore, quick, large reductions in emissions have little effect on
concentrations of greenhouse gases. The
protocol would reduce warming only by about ˝ degree Fahrenheit, because 3rd
World nations, which contribute 80% of the hike in C02 emissions, are exempt.
The protocol gives vast enforcement authority to the UN to enforce emissions
limits, the first permission for foreigners to control and limit growth of our
economy. The UN committee charged
with justifying this protocol faked scientific consensus, angering many
scientists who actually labored on its study.
The UN asked none of the 2,000 scientists if they approved of or agreed
with the final report. Over 17,000
scientists, climatologists, geophysicists, and meteorologists signed a petition
stating that there exists no credible scientific evidence that greenhouse gases
will cause the catastrophic heating of our atmosphere and change our climate.
Actual observations from satellites show no climate warming.
U.S. satellites and weather balloons rank 1997 as the 7th
coolest year since satellite measurements began in 1978.
These satellite measurements are accurate to within .001 degrees.
Weather balloon data goes back to 1960. Carbon dioxide has increased the
last 100 years in our atmosphere because of industrialization, but levels have
reached much higher in the distant past. Life
on earth thrives during periods of high CO 2 concentrations.
Without human presence, global temperatures have risen and dropped
drastically for thousands of years for no apparent reasons.
Polar ice has melted continually for thousands of years.
The principle alarmist about global warming has recanted his original
opinion on the topic. Our National
Weather Service reported that Nov.-Dec. 2000 were the coldest 2 months, since
the feds began maintaining temperature records in 1895.
Russian Siberia in 2000-01 suffered its coldest winter in 100 years.
The famed astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle published a treatise advocating
production of additional greenhouse gases to forestall a new Ice Age.
Environmental experts have proved through studies that greenhouse
emissions are not causing catastrophic global warming that will melt all the ice
sheets and turn our globe into a Waterworld.
Earth heating is cyclical; a prime determinant is magnetic activity of
the Sun. Clouds act as a thermostat
to cool the Earth when it overheats. Sea
water temperature is not the same as air temperature above it, so measurements
of sea water grossly overestimated air temperature over it. The U.S. actually is a net reducer or absorber of CO2 because
of our large forests and swaths of farmland, according to Science Magazine
(1998). We already are winning the real battle. In 1998-99, American greenhouse gas emissions grew by only
1%, while the GDP grew by 8%. MUST
READING. Read
Hot Talk, Cold Science, by S. Fred Singer, which announces that over
17,000 scientists have signed the Oregon Petition stating that there is no hard
evidence of catastrophic global warming from human activity. Computer generated climate models that predict global warming
should have shown temperature hikes but do not. More accurate temp data from balloons and weather satellites
since 1980 show NO warming trend. Actually,
researchers have not yet identified precisely how clouds, oceans, solar
radiation, volcanic particles, and other factors affect climate change. Singer
concludes that the real threat comes from economic anarchy resulting from
proposed rationing of energy consumption. Dr. Singer created the American
weather satellite system. SEN.
HAGEL BUCKS KYOTO. Our
Sen. Chuck Hagel is in the front trenches fighting the onerous provisions of the
Kyoto Treaty. He supports
additional scientific research and development of new technologies that will
bring us cleaner energy sources. KYOTO
PROPONENTS. GOP
Sen. John McCain and Democrat Sen. Joe Lieberman jointly are pushing legislation
to force all U.S. power plants and industries to reduce emissions of greenhouse
gases to mirror the Kyoto Protocol. American
industry would suffer suffocating regulations.
NEBRASKA
AFFECTS. The
Kyoto Protocol would cause increased production and transportation costs for NE
farmers and ranchers. Inflationary
pressure will hit all state commerce that trucks products and services
intrastate or interstate. These
costs will pass along to consumers. Senior
citizens and the poor will see reduced disposable income.
Small businesses will see depressed profitability and growth potential.
Oil prices continually rise. Natural
gas prices are triple those of March, 2000.
We will pay outrageous sums at the gas pumps this year; some will default
on skyrocketing heat and air conditioning bills.
The gas and oil used by NE farm tractors and trucks constitute 1/3 of the
total energy used on our farms. Manufactured
inputs like fertilizer and pesticides are very energy intensive and account for
the remaining 2/3 of NE farm energy consumption. Increased energy costs required by this treaty will increase
farm production costs by 7.5% for milk, 32% for corn, 27.3% for soybeans, 26.7%
for wheat, and 10.3% for hogs. Profits
would fall on production of all these items, ranging from 20.5% for soybeans to
84.5% for hogs. NE farm income
would fall by millions annually, causing family farms to fail or gravitate to
corporate farming. Rural
communities and small towns that depend on farms and ranches for jobs and
farmers and ranchers for customers would become destitute.
ITS
STATUS. The
proposed treaty is ailing from the pullout of the U.S. and the probable
defection of other countries like Australia, Canada, Japan, and Russia, making
Greenpeace apoplectic. To become
effective, the pact requires ratification by 55 nations, including
industrialized countries representing 55% of the carbon dioxide emitted in 1990.
With the U.S. withdrawn, every other industrial nation would have to sign
the treaty to reach projected goals. Countries
may offset requirements by expanding forests and farmlands that absorb carbon
dioxide. Nations can earn credits
by helping 3rd World nations restrict carbon emissions.
Countries can buy rights to emit greenhouse gases fro other nations,
where reductions might come cheaper. Emissions
trading would allow nations like Russia, who have emissions targets way above
their needs, to sell excess emissions rights to the U.S., resulting in no cut in
American or Russian emissions. REFERENCE SOURCES.
Research, documentation, and analysis for this issue paper done by Doug Kagan and Arden Fields. This material copyrighted by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, with express prior permission for its use by Taxwatchers, Inc., NE Libertarians, Citizens for Local Control, Dawes County Taxpayers, and other groups in the Tax Freedom Network. 2-02 |