Pirate's Cove

It’s a good thing the Washington Post is there to tell us these kinds of things on a Saturday when most people are not watching: Senators to propose abandoning cape-and-trade

Three key senators are engaged in a radical behind-the-scenes overhaul of climate legislation, preparing to jettison the broad “cap-and-trade” approach that has defined the legislative debate for close to a decade.

Why? Because Lindsay Graham, John Kerry, and Joe Lieberman realize that climate alarmism has collapsed, people get really, really, really ticked off over cap and trade, but they still feel they have to “Do Something.” And what are they going to do in their clueless ineptitude?

According to several sources familiar with the process, the lawmakers are looking at cutting the nation’s greenhouse gas output by targeting, in separate ways, three major sources of emissions: electric utilities, transportation and industry.

Power plants would face an overall cap on emissions that would become more stringent over time; motor fuel may be subject to a carbon tax whose proceeds could help electrify the U.S. transportation sector; and industrial facilities would be exempted from a cap on emissions for several years before it is phased in. The legislation would also expand domestic oil and gas drilling offshore and would provide federal assistance for constructing nuclear power plants and carbon sequestration and storage projects at coal-fired utilities.

And what does this mean for the American people? Higher costs for everything. Period. Electric bills will skyrocket. Gas prices will skyrocket. This will cause everything else to skyrocket, as those will cause the increased business costs to be passed on to consumers, not too mention the direct costs to the American people for driving their cars and having electricity at home. Oh, and let’s not forget the lost jobs, as companies move their businesses out of the USA so as to avoid the onerous and burdensome cost of doing business, particularly those who are in the business of making some sort of product that needs to be competitively priced.

Many lawmakers and lobbyists say even a radically different climate bill would face big hurdles to passage, given conflicting corporate and consumer interests, regional divides and a crowded Senate calendar. Energy industry lobbyists have turned much of their attention to proposing numerous variations of more narrow energy legislation.

Inside the beltway mentality. They are not even considering what the American people are thinking, nor want. And they do not want more Washington ideas that increase their cost of living. We know Obama doesn’t care

But President Obama has continued to push for broad legislation that he says would make the U.S. economy more efficient, slow climate change and fulfill U.S. pledges in international climate talks in December to cut the country’s emissions by 17 percent by 2020. A U.S. failure to fulfill that commitment could undercut the determination of other nations to live up to their pledges.

Apparently, “efficient” means “put people out of work.” Manmade global warming is not happening, and only fools in complete denial still walk that quasi-religious line anymore. As for the world? Most Kyoto signatory countries failed to meet their targets. It was all a feel good gesture based on junk science, and all those countries and the people who live in them should feel really great after damaging their economies for a fake issue.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU