December 4th, 2007
What'll it cost to save the planet? Who's spinning the numbers?
“Business Week” is not known for its anti-business politics, so it’s interesting to see where they go with a piece just published on the costs of controlling carbon emissions. Opponents of that dangerous plot of mandating carbon emission reductions would have us believe that the American economy, and by implication everybody in the world except maybe China, would suffer if there were forced reductions in air pollution. But the BW article finds there are many ways to spin the numbers and it’s quite likely that carbon emissions controls would not be very costly after all.
The argument in the U.S. has centered on whether “market forces” would deal with carbon emissions and global warming rather than take the apparent risk of letting the government set standards. We’ve been frequently told that taking government action would damage our beloved economy and all of us who depend upon it. Anybody notice how well the market forces have so far dealt with other major problems like war, racism, famine, energy prices, cancer, diabetes, heart attacks, stroke, the dropping value of the US dollar, the mortgage mess, drug-taking athletes, drunken starlets or crud on TV? Of particular interest is the current junk mortgage mess because that was in fact created by the “market forces” which drive for ever greater profits and quarterly earnings. Yet now it’s the Federal Reserve that is having to bail out the market by manipulating interest rates. So why is it we should expect “market forces” to deal with global warming? Many other nations on the same planet as the U.S. have already headed toward those mandatory carbon emission caps.
BW published their story this week because of the international gathering in Bali. There world leaders are supposed to be searching for the next step after the Kyoto Protocol. At that meeting the U.S. continues to oppose any binding agreement that would force any government or corporation to do anything specific about global warming. That position may now be supported by both Japan and Canada who earlier signed the Kyoto Protocol swith its set standards. European delegates want continued biding standards after Kyoto expires.
A newsman since 1969, Harry Fuller has worked for CBS, ABC, CNBC Europe, CNET and was founding news director at TechTV. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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