NTF
Issue Paper: Cong21. 2-02.
NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS FOR FREEDOM ISSUE PAPER:
REJECT THE KYOTO TREATY.
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 Citizens for Local Control, Dawes County
Taxpayers, and other groups in the Tax Freedom Network. 2-02.
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