http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-16-koch-group-alec-cut-paste-attack-regional-climate-initiativesKoch-funded group mounts cut-and-paste attack on regional climate initiatives
by David Anderson
15 Mar 2011 10:24 PM
-snip-
Fresh off last year’s successful defeat of federal climate legislation in the U.S. Senate, the oil baron Koch brothers and their dirty-energy buddies are now bent on dismantling one of the nation’s last hopes for doing anything about climate change in the near term: regional climate accords.
Today, a total of 32 states are active participants or observing members in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the Northeast, the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord, or the Western Climate Initiative.
That number will get a lot smaller if the American Legislative Exchange Council—a D.C.-based conservative advocacy organization funded by Koch family foundations, ExxonMobil, and other oil companies and big corporations—gets its way.
-snipping a paragraph explaining that ALEC provides model legislation, something I hope DUers are aware of from other topics on ALEC posted recently-
But thanks to a blog post by a conservative states-rights activist in Florida (and a tidbit in one of ALEC’s own press releases), we can make out at least part of what’s in ALEC’s template for “State Withdrawal from Regional Climate Initiatives,” one of the offerings on the group’s environment webpage. And it looks like the template has been getting a lot of use lately.
-snip-
The Grist article links to this rightwing blog
http://florida.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2010/06/state-withdrawal-from-regional-climate-initiatives-legislation-template/which quotes the ALEC template:
Withdrawal Legislation Template:
WHEREAS, there has been no credible economic analysis of the costs associated with carbon
reduction mandates and the consequential effect of the increasing costs of doing business in
the State of ______;
WHEREAS, forcing business, industry, and food producers to reduce carbon emissions through
government mandates and cap-and-trade policies under consideration for the regional climate
initiative will increase the cost of doing business, push companies to do business with other
states or nations, and increase consumer costs for electricity, fuel, and food;
WHEREAS, the Congressional Budget Office warns that the cost of cap-and-trade policies will
be borne by consumers and will place a disproportionately high burden on poorer families;
WHEREAS, simply reducing carbon emissions in the State of ______ will not have a significant
impact on international carbon reduction, especially while countries like China, Russia, Mexico,
and India emit an ever-increasing amount of carbon into the atmosphere;
WHEREAS, a tremendous amount of economic growth would be sacrificed for a reduction in
carbon emissions that would have no appreciable impact on global concentrations of CO2;
WHEREAS, no state or nation has enhanced economic opportunities for its citizens or
increased Gross Domestic Product through cap and trade or other carbon reduction policies;
and WHEREAS, Europe’s cap and trade system has been undermined by political favoritism,
accounting tricks and has failed to achieve the carbon reduction targets,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the legislature of the State of ______ urges the
Governor to withdraw from the regional climate initiative.
(Adopted by the Natural Resources Task Force in St. Louis, MO, on April 23, 2010.)
(Approved by the ALEC Board of Directors on May 4, 2010)
Please read the entire Grist article:
http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-16-koch-group-alec-cut-paste-attack-regional-climate-initiativesLots of interesting info and links there.
As I've been pointing out elsewhere, ALEC is behind a lot of the radical, reactionary rightwing legislation we've been seeing introduced recently.
And the Koch brothers do help fund ALEC. Though they're far from the only corporate sponsors of ALEC who help draft this model legislation.
Please see my more general topic on ALEC, which I'm going to add a link to the Grist article to:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x591230
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
