dayaratna
<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">oops see kevin</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">g alert 12 22</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/12/06/the_false_assumptions_behind_climate_regulations_in_pennsylvania_868702.html">https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/12/06/the_false_assumptions_behind_climate_regulations_in_pennsylvania_868702.html</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="article-title-wrapper" style="float: left; width: 550.287px;"><div class="article-title" style="padding: 0px 137.562px 0px 0px;"><h1 style="line-height: 1em; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the False Assumptions Behind Climate Regulations in Pennsylvania</font></h1></div></div><div class="article-social" style="float: left; width: 97.1px; text-align: right;"><div class="socialBar" data-print="1" data-style="short" data-dialog="share" style="border-bottom: 0px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top: medium none; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; width: 145px; display: inline-block;"><div class="left toolset has-tools" style="display: inline; float: left; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="icon tweet_icon" style="background-image: url("/asset/img/social-icons-with-gettr.png"); background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; float: left; height: 30px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; width: 31px;" /><a class="icon fb_icon" style="background-image: url("/asset/img/social-icons-with-gettr.png"); background-position: -37px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; float: left; height: 30px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; width: 31px;" /><span class="more-wrapper" style="float: left; position: relative;"><a class="icon jqDrawer more_icon" style="background-image: url("/asset/img/social-icons-with-gettr.png"); background-position: -75px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; float: left; height: 30px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; width: 31px;" /></span></font></div></div><div class="socialBar-top-counts" style="float: left; width: 325px; margin-left: -200px; font-weight: bold; padding-top: 5px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="socialBar-shares" style="display: inline-block; height: inherit; vertical-align: middle;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></div></div></div><div class="article-auth " style="margin-top: 20px;"><div class="auth-byline" style="display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; float: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By <a href="https://www.realclearenergy.org/authors/kevin_mooney/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Kevin Mooney</a>
December 06, 2022</font></div></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="clear" style="width: 647.4px; height: 2px; margin: 5px 0px; display: inline-block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div class="article-body-wrapper"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="clear" style="width: 647.4px; height: 2px; margin: 5px 0px; display: inline-block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></div><div class="article-body-text" id="article_content" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.9em; padding: 0px 5px 10px 0px; margin-top: -30px;"><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While they were in the majority, Pennsylvania House Republicans spent their political capital to advance American energy independence, free speech rights, and scientific integrity.</font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Unlike too many their counterparts in Washington D.C., they were not cowed by hostile press coverage or well-funded pressure groups that have a stake in undermining sound science. Most recently, for instance, the <a href="https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/CteeInfo/Index.cfm?Code=8&CteeBody=H&SessYear=2021" style="text-decoration-line: none;">House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee</a> held a <a href="https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/CMS/ArchiveDetails.cfm?SessYear=2021&MeetingId=2510&Code=8&Chamber=H" style="text-decoration-line: none;">hearing</a> this fall exploring the benefits of fossil fuels and pitfalls of “emergency declarations” advanced in the name of climate change.</font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Since Gov. Tom Wolf, the state’s outgoing Democratic governor, first <a href="https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/governor-wolf-takes-executive-action-to-combat-climate-change-carbon-emissions/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">announced</a> back in October 2019 that he was taking executive action to combat climate change, Republican leaders have held a series of hearings calling attention to scientific data that debunks climate alarmism. They have also worked in partnership with Pennsylvania Democrats representing the energy sector to prevent Wolf from circumventing the state legislature along the way toward imposing carbon taxes.</font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In April, the Pennsylvania Senate fell just <a href="https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/RC/Public/rc_view_action2.cfm?sess_yr=2021&sess_ind=0&rc_body=S&rc_nbr=465" style="text-decoration-line: none;">one vote</a> shy of the requisite two-thirds majority needed to override Wolf’s veto of a <a href="https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/bills/RenderMisc-Documents.cfm?name=SU0001&MiscYr=2021" style="text-decoration-line: none;">concurrent resolution</a> from the full General Assembly that would prevent the commonwealth from joining the multi-state climate change compact. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Three Senate Democrats joined with Republicans in the override attempt. At issue, is the <a href="https://www.rggi.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative</a>,</span> commonly known as <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">RGGI, a <a href="https://www.epa.gov/emissions-trading-resources/what-emissions-trading" style="text-decoration-line: none;">“cap and trade”</a> regulatory<b> scheme</b> operating under the guise of climate change </span>that is designed to curtail carbon dioxide emissions throughout the 11 participating New England and Mid-Atlantic states. Government regulators in the RGGI states require electric power plants with a capacity of at least 25 megawatts to purchase carbon allowances at quarterly auctions whenever utilities surpass the greenhouse gas initiative’s <a href="https://www.rggi.org/program-overview-and-design/elements" style="text-decoration-line: none;">predetermined cap</a> on Co2 emissions. Speculators have latitude to resell allowances at higher prices. The auction process, which has been in motion since 2009, is where carbon taxes enter the equation. <b>State Rep. Jim Struzzi, a Republican in Indiana County, </b>explains why.</font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“RGGI is a tax,” Struzzi said in an interview. “It taxes the carbon dioxide emissions that come from plants anytime they are generating electricity and so basically it punishes these companies for being successful by creating the electricity we need for reliable energy in those cold winter months and hot summer months. If these companies are going to stay in business someone is going to have to pay these costs; and it’s going to be the factories, it’s going to be the consumers, and it’s going to affect everyone.”</font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Struzzi is the lead sponsor of <a href="https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billInfo/billInfo.cfm?sYear=2021&sInd=0&body=H&type=B&bn=0637" style="text-decoration-line: none;">legislation</a> that would prohibit the governor from joining RGGI and imposing carbon taxes without legislative approval. Wolf <a href="https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/gov-wolf-vetoes-bill-that-ignores-dangers-of-climate-change/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">vetoed</a> an <a href="https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20210&cosponId=33517" style="text-decoration-line: none;">earlier version</a> of the bill, which seven of his own Democrats co-sponsored on the House side. Wolf is not exactly an outlier among climate change activists in government who are actively working to circumvent the democratic process.</font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In his <a href="https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/TR/Transcripts/2022_0123_0003_TSTMNY.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">testimony</a> before the Pennsylvania House, Marc Morano, the editor and publisher of the <a href="https://www.climatedepot.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Climate Depot</a> website, told lawmakers that he sees a certain parallel between climate change initiatives the COVID-19 lockdowns at all levels of government impacting businesses and schools across the country.</font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Biden administration believes that when democracy fails to achieve its climate goals, it's time to bypass democracy and Congress and follow the COVID model. Climate activists have<b> lusted</b> after the COVID lockdowns as the model for climate lockdowns,” Morano said. “The plan is to declare a 'climate emergency,' toss out elected representatives and follow China's one-party rule model by implementing energy restrictions through the bureaucracy. They don't need no stinkin' democracy. Throughout history, emergency declarations have been used and abused to crush freedom. For those who loved how<b> unelected officials ruled our lives under COVID lockdowns</b>, prepare for the attempts to make climate and energy lockdowns permanent.”</font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During the same hearing, Kevin Dayaratna, a statistician and data scientist with The Heritage Foundation, <a href="https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/TR/Transcripts/2022_0123_0004_TSTMNY.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">presented testimony</a> focusing attention on the “Social Cost of Carbon,” or SCC, which federal regulators define as “economic damages per metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions</span>.” The Biden administration is using the SCC in various climate models to determine the long-term impact of CO2, Dayaratna said. However, these models are based on assumptions that may not square with reality, the Heritage analyst warned. These assumptions tend, for example, to overlook the environmental benefits of Co2 emissions such as the “greening of the planet” that occurred between 1982 and 2009, Dayaratna said. At the same time, the models omit the deleterious effect of regulations that restrict Co2 emissions, he observed.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b> Dayaratna cited figures from the Heritage Foundation that point to a severe economic fallout to U.S. that could result from rejoining the U.N.’s Paris Climate Agreement.</b> By 2040, the U.S. could experience an average employment shortfall of more than 1.2 million lost jobs, loss of income of more than $87,000 for a family of four, and up to a 30% increase in household electricity expenditure, with an aggregate $7 trillion loss in GDP, Dayaratna said.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In Pennsylvania, the state-level outlook is every bit as bleak. The Commonwealth Foundation, a free-market group based in Harrisburg, has just published an <a href="https://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/2022/11/30/pennsylvania-electric-bill-carbon-tax/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">analysis</a> that finds RGGI’s “carbon tax regime” could lead to a 114% hike in electricity bills. </span>Although Wolf had Pennsylvania <a href="https://www.media.pa.gov/pages/DEP_details.aspx?newsid=1594" style="text-decoration-line: none;">join RGGI</a> this year, the state has not participated in the most recent auctions since Wolf’s executive actions are the subject of legal challenges. <a href="https://secureservercdn.net/166.62.108.173/o91.197.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Memorandum-Opinion-Filed-3-copy.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Industry and labor groups</a> have filed suit challenging the governor’s ability to act unilaterally on climate change policy as have <a href="https://secureservercdn.net/166.62.108.173/o91.197.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Injunction-Opinion-A8866129-copy.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">state senators</a> who have raised questions about the separation of powers. <b>As a solution, the Commonwealth Foundation has proposed passing a <a href="https://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/2022/11/30/pennsylvania-electric-bill-carbon-tax/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">constitutional amendment</a> to allow the General Assembly “to disapprove regulations as a check on an agency’s power to restrict energy development in the state.”</b></font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Josh Shapiro, the incoming Democratic governor, <a href="https://www.indianagazette.com/local_news/shapiro-tours-downtown-indiana/article_36a17284-6c05-5661-804b-f26eea5f8b79.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">expressed misgivings</a> about Wolf’s approach toward RGGI while on the campaign trail. Since being elected, he hasn’t made any firm commitments about the state’s future participation. A constitutional amendment offers him a way out.</font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With his party poised to take a <a href="https://www.penncapital-star.com/campaigns-elections/with-no-majority-in-the-pa-house-democrats-and-republicans-are-fighting-over-who-calls-the-shots/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">slim majority</a> in the House next year, Shapiro will still need to contend with labor constituents and House Democrats residing in energy producing regions who are opposed to RGGI. Meanwhile, the scientific and economic rationale for the climate change initiative continues to unravel. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Gregory Wrightstone, a geologist, and executive director of the Co2 Coalition, has repeatedly informed Pennsylvania House members that<b> Co2 is a <a href="https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/TR/Transcripts/2019_0135T.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">“miracle molecule”</a></b> that greatly benefits humanity and deserves greater appreciation.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Critics of fossil fuels routinely exaggerate, and sometimes outright fabricate, their negative effects while ignoring altogether their enormous benefits,” Wrightstone said during his <a href="https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/TR/Transcripts/2022_0123_0001_TSTMNY.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">latest testimony</a> before the Pennsylvania House.</font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Coal and oil fueled the Industrial Revolution, which gave us unprecedented prosperity and health. Together with natural gas, t<b>hey promise to raise billions of people in developing countries from poverty and deprivation</b>. Modern economies cannot long survive without fossil fuels. In short, we love CO2 and so should you.”</font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a victory for<b> free speech,</b> climate skeptics have found expression before the Pennsylvania legislature like they have in few other public venues. In a potential victory for American energy, these same skeptics have also exposed the faulty assumptions underpinning costly regulations while also<b> calling attention to unconstitutional executive actions.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 35px 0px; padding-right: 0px; line-height: 1.9em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kevin Mooney is an investigative reporter with both the Commonwealth Foundation and the Heritage Foundation. </font></p></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><h3 style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" margin="margin" em="em" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Pruitt's prospects</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here are some of the skeptical nominees under consideration:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joseph D'Aleo, a certified consultant meteorologist and co-founder of the Weather Channel:</strong> He has run climate skeptic websites and has appeared as a speaker at Heartland conferences. D'Aleo said his priority on the board would be attacking the endangerment finding, the legally binding document that holds that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases harm human health and must be regulated by the executive branch. He said he wants to challenge the finding because it could otherwise be used later to build back Obama-era environmental regulations.</font></p><aside id="image_asset_layout_21609" class="left span4 image_asset_layout" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" margin="margin" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" float="float" left="left" max-width="max-width" width="width"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p class="caption" style="margin: 3px 2px; background: transparent; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Edwin Berry. <span class="credit" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">edberry.com</span></font></p></aside><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We're going to push for reconsideration, start from scratch and put together the best science," he said. "If CO2 is not a serious pollutant, let's focus the attention of the EPA on other issues."</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Edwin Berry, a meteorologist and atmospheric scientist:</strong> He has funded his own climate research and says human carbon dioxide emissions do not cause climate change. He has compared those who believe in human-caused climate change to "Aztecs who believed they could make rain by cutting out beating hearts and rolling decapitated heads down temple steps." O<b>n his Twitter account, he has called Islam "a death cult" and has encouraged motorists to drive into protesters.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berry, in an email to E&E News today, described his tweet as a joke and said he does not advocate violence.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Clearly, my tween says to slowly drive to not hurt anyone," Berry said in the email, misspelling "tweet."</font></p><aside id="image_asset_layout_21607" class="right span5 image_asset_layout" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" margin="margin" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" float="float" right="right" max-width="max-width" width="width"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">brn
</font><p class="caption" style="margin: 3px 2px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kevin <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Dayaratna</span>. <span class="credit" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Heritage Foundation</span></font></p></aside><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berry, who confirmed that he and a number of other skeptics were nominated by Heartland, said he wants to use his position on the board to show that humans barely contribute to atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, which he claimed are mostly driven by natural factors.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Let's get over this whole thing about climate change being an important thing, because in fact we humans have a negligible impact on climate," he said. "And if we had the Paris Agreement and everything else, it wouldn't do any good anyway."</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="background: rgb(255, 255, 102); border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Alan Carlin, a retired EPA employee who is affiliated with Heartland</strong><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">:</strong> He fought the agency's crafting of the endangerment finding. Carlin, an economist, was at the center of a political firestorm under Obama after he produced a widely criticized 93-page report comprising cherry-picked scientific data and blog entries concluding that regulating carbon dioxide was "the worst mistake that EPA has ever made."</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-image="background-image" initial="initial" background-position="background-position" background-size="background-size" background-repeat="background-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kevin Dayaratna,</span><strong style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> a statistician at the conservative Heritage Foundation:</strong> His report was cited by Trump as a reason to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. It claimed that the agreement could shrink U.S. gross domestic product by $2.5 trillion within two decades (though Trump stated the impact as coming within a decade). The report was criticized by some as being misleading, because that amount is less than 1 percent of the aggregate GDP over that period and the report did not account for the cost of taking no climate change action. Dayaratna was invited to attend Trump's withdrawal announcement in June in the White House Rose Garden.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Craig Idso, a senior fellow at the Heartland Institute:</strong> He has researched the benefits of atmospheric carbon dioxide. His work has centered on highlighting how increased carbon dioxide will benefit plants.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Paul Driessen, a senior policy adviser at the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, a libertarian environmental think tank:</strong> His organization handed out leaflets at a climate protest this year in Washington, D.C., that said, "CO2 is not the 'control knob' of the climate." He also co-founded Climate Exit, or "Clexit," which criticized the science behind the Paris climate agreement and holds that spiking levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide benefit the Earth. "The world must abandon this suicidal Global Warming crusade," the group stated in its founding statement. "Man does not and cannot control the climate."</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gordon Fulks, a physicist and adviser to the Cascade Policy Institute, an Oregon-based libertarian think tank:</strong> He has denied that net sea ice melt is occurring and that the Earth is warming. He has said those who express concern about climate change are like a "societal pathogen that virulently spreads misinformation in tiny packages like a virus."</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Anthony Lupo, another founding member of Clexit:</strong> He has received support from the Heartland Institute and helped in the unsuccessful fight against the endangerment finding in court.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Leighton Steward, a former energy company executive and a founder of groups that promote the rise of carbon dioxide as a benefit:</strong> He has also encouraged the United States to drop out of the Paris climate accord and says that natural warming is raising the temperature of the Earth.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">David Legates, a professor of climatology at the University of Delaware:</strong> He has denied that human-caused climate change could have catastrophic consequences and has co-authored climate research claiming polar bears are not harmed by human-caused climate change that was quietly funded, at least in part, by Koch Industries Inc.</font></p><h3 style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" background="background" rgb="rgb" border="border" px="px" margin="margin" em="em" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Critics want to boot EPA 'cronies'</font></h3></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">T</span>here’s no need to worry about reducing the greenhouse gases driving climate change—all that carbon dioxide is actually “greening the planet.” The Green New Deal, on the other hand, would send the country back to the stone age, or at least the pre-industrial era. Those were among the eye-popping and often-conflicting views expressed yesterday at the <a href="https://climateconference.heartland.org/" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Heartland Institute’s 13th International Climate Change Conference</a>, a gathering of climate change deniers that took place at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., just blocks from the White House.</font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.66667; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/24/scientific-consensus-on-humans-causing-global-warming-passes-99" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">vast majority</a> of the world’s climate scientists agree that climate change could prove devastating to life as we know it unless we take swift and sweeping action to decarbonize the economy . But those “wild predictions have been pronouncedly exaggerated,” according to the British gadfly Lord Christopher Monckton, who holds the title 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.66667; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the more colorful figures in the climate denial universe, Monckton ticked off a list of problems scientists have linked to climate change that Monckton says we really don’t need to worry about. According to him, the world is seeing less, not more, drought; sea levels are falling not rising; forest fires are causing less damage; hurricane activity is decreasing, too; and carbon dioxide is actually improving the global environment by “greening” places like Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. “That’s why we need more CO2, because it greens the planet,” <a href="https://climateconference.heartland.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">he declared</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.66667; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other conference panelists joined Monckton in cycling through a series of theories long debunked by peer-reviewed science. Some believe, like Monckton, that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are growing but provide more benefits than threats. (One Heritage Foundation official went so far as to suggest carbon dioxide emitters should get paid a subsidy rather than face the kind of carbon tax scheme policymakers have discussed; of course, the oil industry already does receive billions in subsidies.) Others argued that CO2 levels are in fact not rising, while still others say we should be more concerned about a coming ice age. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.66667; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The real problem is we have a lot more to worry about with global cooling than with global warming,” said Rodger Bezdek, an energy analyst and Heartland policy advisor.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.66667; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If the speakers and audience members don’t all agree on why we shouldn’t worry about climate change, the few hundred people assembled in a hotel ballroom yesterday do share a number of other ideas: chiefly, that the fossil fuel industry is under unfair attack and deserves public support, while the Green New Deal is a totalitarian communist plot to steal American liberties and cast the world into “energy poverty.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.66667; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Kevin D. Dayaratna</b>, a senior statistician at the Heritage Foundation, told the audience the Left had already begun to take control of the country and would continue its authoritarian advance with a Green New Deal.</font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.66667; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the surface, times would seem to be good for Heartland and the climate change denial movement, with the world’s most prominent climate change denier living in the White House. President Donald Trump has run with many of this group’s longtime demands such as withdrawing the United States from the United Nations’ Paris climate accord and rolling back Obama-era pollution rules.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.66667; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Heritage Report on EPA Regs – Huge Job & Economy Impact</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">February 18, 2015 | Filed underBig Gov't | Posted by Editor</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Editor’s Note – If the highest national security threat to the United States is climate change, why are they changing or adding so many regulations that will cut a huge number of industrial jobs? The Heritage Foundation shows us that picture below.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then Obama also cites jobs in his SOTU speech with that new catch-phrase; the “middle-class economy” is the keystone to his 2016 budget. Which is it, jobs, regulations, weather, immigration fiats, ObamaCare, terrorism, or one of so many other priorities?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Apparently all that broken glass on the floor is a result of his inability to juggle? Nothing jives; everything is seen in tunnel-vision silos and he fails to see the connective tissue, anywhere.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our national security and the economy are conjoined twins, when one suffers, so does the other. Of course in Obama’s world, he cannot be troubled by such inconsistencies. It is no wonder that after six years, all his failed “chickens are coming home to roost” from all points on the compass.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Please examine the report the Heritage Foundation put together:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Obama Administration’s Climate Agenda Will Hit Manufacturing Hard: A State-by-State Analysis</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By <b>Kevin D. Dayaratna, </b>Ph.D., Nicolas Loris and David W. Kreutzer, Ph.D. – The Heritage Foundation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Abstract</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Building on an earlier study of the economic impact of Obama Administration climate policies, this study breaks down the employment impacts of new regulations by state and congressional district.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The climate regulations disproportionately and negatively impact states and districts with higher-than-average employment in manufacturing or mining.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an earlier study, we examined the economic impact of climate change–related regulations at the national level and found devastating job losses over the course of the next two decades. In this study, we quantify this impact by state and congressional district.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Not surprisingly, we find that all states would suffer from this policy. Given these results and the regulations’ negligible positive impact on the climate and the environment, policymakers should avoid instituting these potentially burdensome regulations.</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Overview</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Obama Administration has put forward a variety of rules and goals aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions. These rules would drive up energy costs, reduce economic activity, and disrupt job markets.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A previous Heritage Foundation study outlined the projected economic impact of such policy.[1] It found by 2030:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An average employment shortfall of nearly 300,000 jobs,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A peak employment shortfall of more than 1 million jobs,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">500,000 jobs lost in manufacturing,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Destruction of more than 45 percent of coal-mining jobs,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A loss of more than $2.5 trillion (inflation-adjusted) in aggregate gross domestic product, and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A total income loss of more than $7,000 (inflation-adjusted) per person.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the current study, job impacts are disaggregated to show potential effects by state and by congressional district. Because manufacturing jobs are disproportionately affected, state economies that are manufacturing-intensive can expect disproportionate employment losses.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Proposed Regulations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For decades, environmental activist organizations have pushed to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even though such regulations would have a negligible positive impact on the climate and the environment, the Obama Administration has introduced a series of measures aimed at controlling emissions from motor vehicles and power plants, both new and existing.[2] The economic basis for these regulations has been the social cost of carbon (SCC).cartoon_greenpeacelogic</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Derived from integrated assessment models (IAMs), the SCC supposedly quantifies the economic damages associated with carbon dioxide emissions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although conceptually appealing and technically sophisticated in many ways, the IAMs suffer from inherent flaws, including unrealistic assumptions about the costs of future damages, the temperature changes caused by increased carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, and the time horizon (nearly 300 years into the future).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Because of these flaws, the IAMs are fundamentally unsuitable for regulatory application.[3]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Economic Impact by State</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the earlier study, we used the Heritage Energy Model (HEM) to quantify the economic impact that such regulations based on the SCC would have on the American economy.[4]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To estimate the economic impact of the Administration’s regulatory scheme, based on an estimated SCC of $37 per ton, we modeled the impact of an equivalent tax of $37 per ton of carbon emissions[5] instituted in 2015 and increasing according to the EPA’s annual SCC estimates.[6]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Taxing CO2-emitting energy incentivizes businesses and consumers to change production processes, technologies, and behavior in a manner comparable to the Administration’s regulatory scheme. To neutralize the analytical impacts of a tax’s income transfer, we model a scenario in which 100 percent of carbon-tax revenue is returned to taxpayers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Map 1 shows the impact of such a regulatory scheme on manufacturing jobs by state eight years from now (the midpoint of the period analyzed).[7]...</font></div>