Empty and Green

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, urged on by President Barack Obama, announced progress on Tuesday toward quick passage of legislation to fight global warming by reducing industrial emissions of carbon dioxide.

At a midday White House press conference, Obama said the "historic" climate change bill moving through the House would "transform the way we produce and use energy in America."

With incentives to encourage utilities, manufacturers and other companies to switch from higher-polluting oil and coal to cleaner energy alternatives, Obama said the legislation would spark a "transformation that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and confront the carbon pollution that threatens our planet."

God bless 'em, the President and his cute little Global Cooling Global Warming Climate Change believers mean well.

He honestly and wholly believes with the sincerity of a child that carbon—the building block of life—is a Very Bad Thing.

The undeniable fact that dear old Gaia herself has pumped out far higher amounts of carbon into the air than we presently see, without any long-term ill effects, is something of an inconvenient truth. Of course, the entire history of the global climate freakout movement over the past 40 years is based upon inconvenient truths, half-truths, and hysterical ignorance being used to stir up irrational fears.

Here are some hard truths for the President.

The earth has been far, far hotter than it currently is. We had nothing to do with that one way or the other, and the Earth did just fine in moderating itself without bloviating bipeds passing empty resolutions.

The earth has also been far, far cooler than it currently is. We had nothing to do with that one way or the other, and the Earth did just fine in moderating itself without shivering, bloviating bipeds passing prevaricating laws as if they were of significance.

The fact of the matter is that there is nothing in Mr. Obama's background to convince us he have any idea what he is talking about on this matter. We don't know if he's had so much as a basic college science course, much less anything of more substance.

But I'm open to being convinced h are on the right path, if he can answer a few basic questions.

For starters, I'd like for him to explain when the last time was the planet wasn't changing. When he finishes, perhaps he can also explain why—for the very first time—the constant change is suddenly bad.

I suspect we know the answer. Obama is about changing others, finding ways to control and alter their lives. That's how he and his cronies can justify pushing for the dismantling of proven energy technologies that power this country (and directly and indirectly, tens of millions of jobs) in favor of more costly and unproven technologies that they claim are better for the environment.

But it's a pretty bold claim, considering none of the "clean energy" sources you support can economically provide enough energy to support a moderately sized town, much a city, metropolitan region, state, or an entire nation. Frankly, it's preposterous.

He's asking us to believe that something in his unknown and unexplored academic past can provide answers to questions that have baffled green energy proponents for years.

Pardon my if I don't buy the empty hype.

Update: Powerline has a state-by-state map that show just how much pointless environmental zealotry is going to cost you, and it isn't pretty. For those of us here in North Carolina, it's going to cost us $241 million in 2012 alone.

The Left Coast states—California, Washington and Oregon—actually make money off the deal, while New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont profit on the East Coast.

The rest of the country—and the country's overall economy— gets screwed.