Fish Fear Me

Exactly Right

House Minority Leader John Boehner is not exactly my favorite politician in the world, but he was exactly right last evening when he answered Rep. Henry Waxman's attempt to shut him up with this:

"The gentleman's had his thirty years to put this bill together, and the house is going to spend a whopping five hours debating the most profound piece of legislation to come to this floor in a hundred years. And uh...and the chairman has the audacity to drop a three hundred plus page amendment in the hopper at 3:09 A.M. this morning. And so I would ask my colleagues, don't you think the American people expect us to understand what's in this bill before we vote on it?"

Real Clear Politics has the video.

Just 14 hours after dropping a 310 page amendment into an already far-reaching and massive bill, one that was issued  out of committee in "final" form only two days before, our House of Representatives approved it after a measly five hours of floor debate.

There is still hope that this boondoggle can be stopped in the US Senate. If you haven't been paying much attention to the issue, I urge you to start now. If you are wondering why, or if it even has an impact on you, stop and take a look around the room you are in. If this legislation is enacted, it is going to artificially raise the future cost of 80% or more of the energy used to produce, transport, and sell to you everything in that room. Ditto for everything in your refrigerator. That's just the raw cost of energy. Heaven knows what the costs will be from the thousands of regulations that will be issued because of this legislation.

I am not opposed to seeing the world move to non-carbon based energy. I am also not opposed to subsidizing basic research to try to make those energy sources cost effective replacements to burning coal, oil, or gas. What this bill does though, is coerce us into adopting conservation and energy production methods that are not cost effective now. If they were, the market would have embraced them already. We are going to pay billions for that in prices and taxes, billions that we might better spend on health care, education, and yes, a better standard of living for future generations.

Regardless of what one thinks about climate change, we ought to have the intelligence, decency, and just plain common sense to discuss exactly what we are doing here. That the Democratic leadership does not want that to happen, in fact is desperate to avoid it, should tell you everything you need to know.

A Seat On The Bridge Of The Titanic?

My geekdom has been completed with dsl. Now I can come home from work on a Friday evening, fire up C-SPAN, and watch the House of Representatives. Haha...I'm not sick, but I'm not well.

The Cap and Trade issue is hugely important. There will be other fights ahead even if the current bill passes the House this evening, but I think this is a historic moment. If it is stopped tonight, it will at least give Americans a chance to really absorb what this is all about. At 3:00 A.M. this morning, another 300 page amendment was added to a bill that had ballooned already just days ago. And yet Democrats are insisting on moving forward with just a few hours to comprehend the entire bill and debate it. The Democrat's process on this bill makes a mockery out of open democracy.

But with that, they will own it. They are deliberately introducing scarcity into the vast majority of energy production in this country. They aren't doing it directly, but by limiting the allowance of permits to emit the byproducts of energy production, primarily carbon dioxide. They will ramp down the amount permitted over time. Basic economics says that as you make something more scarce, it will become more expensive.

Looks like the vote is on.

Update: Passed. 219-212, with 8 Republicans voting for. Hall of Shame to come.

The Democrats have just gone all-in. They are now on a path that says they can dictate the use of energy in this country and what is worthy of that or not, and how much it costs. One can try to say that no, they are just dictating that non-carbon based energy should be used, but non-carbon based energy production is not even close to making up for the gap in what will be needed to grow the economy. The squeeze will be on, and it's going to hurt.

When your electricity bill jumps up, and you suffer electrical brownouts/blackouts, remember this moment.

When you decide not to take that weekend trip because you can't or don't want to spend the money on gasoline, remember this moment.

When you lose your job because the product you help make is now made overseas, remember this moment.

When you lose your job importing the products that are no longer affordable to make here, remember this moment.

When you can't afford the products that used to be made here, but are now only expensive imports, remember this moment.

When you lose your job because all of the others who used to buy your products or services can't afford them, remember this moment.

And as your children and grandchildren scrabble to make a living and only dream of the civilization and freedom you once enjoyed, remember this moment.

And what you did or did not do.

Update II: Serr8d has the Republican wing of the Hall of Shame.

You're the Sucker

You may not realize it, but you are in the middle of a high-stakes game with politicians, various industrial interests, environmentalists, and assorted other special interests. The game everyone is playing is five card Cap and Trade and the latest rules are 1,201 pages long(pdf), up from 946 just a few days ago. Don't worry though, that will likely change before they bring it to the floor on Friday:

This, apparently, isn’t even the final bill. The final bill will be a manager’s amendment that will be drafted later this week! From a posting on the House Rules Committee, we know that the deadline to submit amendments is Thursday at 9:30am. And there is talk that this will be voted on on Friday. Thus, the final version of this bill will likely only be available for less than 24 hours.

What, you're not going to have time to read the bill or maybe even a decent synopsis of it? Bummer, because you're playing anyway. All of the others at the table have paid staff to take care of such things and they will be looking out for their interests and following the rules. And you may want to keep in mind that your congressman is certainly looking out for constituents, though they may or may not include you. 

But I realize that it will be almost impossible for the average person to wade through this stuff. A Paul Newman quote comes to mind here:

“If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you.”

Write your congressmen and demand that they give the public the time to understand exactly what is in this bill and who benefits/loses. A couple of weeks of debate on something that has such wide ranging impacts is not unreasonable. If they are afraid to let the sun shine on a bill, it's almost certainly not worth the paper it's printed on.

The Debate Is Not Over

There's a new link module on the right: Energy/Climate Change Links. This summer the U.S. Congress is going to pass energy and climate change legislation that will likely have a huge effect on our everyday lives. They will probably further restrict both the production of fossil fuels in the US and the building of any new carbon-based electrical plants.

That is going to cost us, perhaps dearly, down the road. What is the saddest thing of all though, is that there is considerable evidence to suggest that this may all be a solution looking for a problem. The debate seems to be over in the major media outlets, but many reasonable and respectable voices continue to question the now orthodox view that humans are causing climate change through the production of CO2. You can read some of them at the links on the right.

I'm willing to be convinced about human caused climate change if I can be presented with arguments that are convincing. What I see a lot of though, are claims based on computer models that use assumptions that we don't know to be true. On top of that, I see an awful lot of argument by intimidation(Denier!) that is meant to silence, not debate, opposing views. Those are not the tactics of reasonable people, they are the tactics of ideologues, and I wonder why the proponents of human caused climate change feel the need to resort to them. 

Sometimes on scientific and complicated issues it is difficult to figure out who to believe. I used to trust the legacy news media to help me sort out such things, but they have abandoned truth for narrative. Now I have to rely on my own ability to comprehend the facts and also use a bit of gut instincts. My gut tells me here that it is important to note that only one side wants to shut down the debate. They seem to fear any science that contradicts their theory of human caused climate change. Even if you don't understand the science being presented, that should give you pause.

Anyway, interesting stuff at the links there. I've read Watts Up With That? for some time now and I think it's a solidly credible site. Dr. Roy Spencer gives me a little pause with his belief in Intelligent Design, but he seems solidly credentialed in his main area of expertise, meteorology and climate studies. And I think he presents his arguments on climate change reasonably and carefully. Climate Change Fraud is relatively new to me and is more of a portal to a number of different sources. Some of those names are unfamiliar to me, so I don't endorse it as heartily as the other two yet, but it seems worth checking into.

What Congress does this summer on energy and climate change will have a huge impact on our country. Don't rely on the legacy media to keep you or your friends and family informed.