“What is RFF hiding–and why? Yes, a carbon tax produces revenue and would reduce CO2 emissions. But what about the tax effect on consumer energy prices–on gasoline, diesel, home heating oil, natural gas, and electricity for starters? And what are the climate effects from the levy (the ostensible reason for the tax)?”
Resources for the Future (RFF), full of PhD economists–and claiming to be scholarly and nonpartisan–has lost its intellectual way on the all important global warming issue.
Previous posts at MasterResource have documented how the once scholarly organization got corrupted by Malthusian thought in the 1970s–and then climate alarmism in the 1990s forward. Former head Paul Portney (a great guy, to be sure) went for the big funding bucks (from private foundations and government) and decided to assume the climate problem, not debate it, and not seriously assess public policies toward climate from a critical perspective.…
“Climate change is a major focus of many large foundations. Just about any approach to climate change you can think of is getting funding, and organizations at all levels — local, regional, national, global — are receiving support.”
– “Climate Change – Funders.” Inside Philanthropy. (Website Visit: October 13, 2017)
Right after the election of Donald Trump last November, I posted a provocative piece, 1) Eliminate Obamacare 2) Challenge Private Foundations to Divert all Global Warming Spending to Health Insurance for the Vulnerable. With a climate reset coming, and the imperative to repeal or shrink Obamacare, I saw an opportunity to couple the issue for a win-win.
My short post read:
…The headline above is a public policy idea for the Trump Administration and for the Republican majorities in the House and the Senate.
“The war against coal is over.”
– EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, quoted in Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis, “EPA Chief Tells Coal Miners He Will Repeal Power Plant Rule Tuesday, Washington Post, October 9, 2017.
“We are committed to righting the wrongs of the Obama administration by cleaning the regulatory slate. Any replacement rule will be done carefully, properly, and with humility, by listening to all those affected by the rule.”
– EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, quoted in EPA, “”EPA Takes Another Step To Advance President Trump’s America First Strategy, Proposes Repeal Of “Clean Power Plan” News Release, October 10, 2017.
On Tuesday, EPA Scott Pruitt issued notice of a forthcoming Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANOPR) to repeal the (misnamed) Clean Power Plan (CPP). This action is the latest step away from the climate road to serfdom–and a signal to the world, not only the US, to focus on real here-and-now problems, not hypothetical futures ones with no clear solution.…