US Has Cut Emissions...Without Cap and Tax
By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
Published on
DickMorris.com on February 21, 2011
While the federal Environmental Protection Administration is about to
impose regulations and taxes on carbon emissions by executive fiat - in
the name of stopping global climate change - the United States has
already dramatically cut its emissions and probably has already complied
with the Kyoto/Copenhagen goals for reduced emissions. And this
has been done without taxes, without regulations, and without government
intervention.
In 2007, the U.S. emitted 6.12 billion metric tons of carbon.
In 2008, emissions fell to 5.92. In 2009, while Obama was
promising that the U.S. would cut its emissions to 5.0 by 2015, the
American economy and public - on their own - cut the emissions to 5.5
billion. Most likely, by the time the 2010 measurements are in, we
will have reached the Obama goal.
While many attribute cut to the recession which, presumably, will end
sometime, the fact is that emissions dropped before the recession hit
and have continued to fall. A big part of the reason is the
reduction in the use of coal to generate electricity.
As we explain in our new book
Revolt! (to be released on March 1), coal accounted for 52% of
electric generation in 1996 but only for 45% today. In the past
twelve months, coal's share has dropped form 49% to 45%. Natural
gas has almost doubled its share from 13% in 1996 to 23% in 2009 while
renewables have risen from 2% to 4%.
Source
1996
2009
Coal
52%
45%
Natural Gas
13%
23%
Nuclear
20%
20%
Renewable
2%
4%
Source: US Energy Information Administration
The free market, free enterprise system has responded to persuasion and
incentives like it does in free societies without the heavy hand of
taxation, government regulation, and coercion.
These data expose the basic truth: Cap and trade or carbon regulation is
not necessary to lower U.S. emissions. The government
bureaucratic/environmentalist alliance want these measures to increase
public control over our economy, not to fight global warming. Just
as the Obama stimulus package was designed to increase public spending,
not to stimulate anything, so the environmental regulations are
exploiting public concern over climate change to ratify a growth in
government power and oversight.
And that's the inconvenient truth!
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DICKMORRIS.COM! TO READ ALL OF DICK'S COLUMNS!
***COPYRIGHT EILEEN MCGANN AND DICK MORRIS 2011.***
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