Americans for Prosperity-Michigan

Staggering Bills for Reckless Alarmism

Nolan Finley, editorial page editor for The Detroit News, sums up the hidden half of the global warming debate pretty well.   

Nolan Finley / The Detroit News     –     Sunday, May 11, 2008
Payment Coming Due for Reckless War
The bills are coming due for the reckless war on global warming, and they are staggering. Global food prices are up 30 percent since last year, leading to starvation and food riots in the poorest parts of the world, and pinching families everywhere.

The sudden price spike is caused in large part by ethanol mandates in the United States that are claiming a third of the corn harvest and 30 million acres that otherwise would be planted in grains and soybeans.

The mandates were forced by environmentalists and their political toadies who ignored predictions that ethanol would pit fuel against food.

And yet green laws are still being rammed through without assessing their consequences.

In Michigan, the Legislature, prodded by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, is near to passing legislation that would mandate the use of renewable fuels in producing electricity. The windmills Lansing wants are a very expensive source of electric power, and yet lawmakers haven’t factored how much they’ll add to the monthly light bill.

Motorists are pleading for relief from rising gasoline prices. Fuel costs are a function of supply and demand. We’ve placed severe restrictions on oil exploration and refining within our own borders and require expensive gasoline formulas for summertime driving. Guess what? Those policies show up at the pump.

And we probably ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The cap-and-trade carbon scheme being considered by Congress will add 35 cents to a gallon of gasoline, and 20 to 30 percent to electricity costs.

The sharp increases in fuel economy standards Congress mandated eventually will tack on $6,000 to $8,000 to an automobile’s sticker. How many people will that price out of the new car market?

And how many will have to kiss goodbye their dreams of owning a new home because the efficiency standards Michigan wants to impose will hike their mortgage by $7,000 or more?

Ultimately, nearly everything we buy will cost more because of environmental mandates that no one can say for certain will actually reduce global warming.

For most of us, the rising prices will cut deeply into discretionary spending. Instead of using our money for the things we want, we’ll have to budget more of it to finance the environmental agenda.

But for the poor — and there will be many more of them once the full costs hit — the impact will be devastating, as most of life’s staples — food, housing, transportation — move further beyond their reach.

This won’t be allowed to stand, of course. Just as with the ethanol-provoked food crisis, balancing the damage done by ill-conceived policies will require a massive transfer of wealth from the haves to the have-nots.

That means higher taxes and a giant step toward socialism in the name of the environment.

The eco-lobby never talks about the real costs to real people of its agenda. Imposing hugely expensive regulations without fully weighing their impact on those who will pay for them is irresponsible. We should strive for a cleaner and greener earth. But we also should make sure we can afford to live on it.

Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The News. Reach him at nfinley@detnews.com or (313) 222-2064. Read his blog at forums.detnews.com/blogs/, and watch him at 8:30 p.m. Fridays on “Am I Right?” on Detroit Public TV, Channel 56.