Green Lobby Fraud
by Jeffrey Folks
Issue 104 - March 26, 2008

Here I am in the sunny South, sitting inside in the midst of a late-winter blizzard. In most of the eastern U.S., in fact, this has been the coldest winter in memory. Since 1998 temperatures in the northern hemisphere have been trending down, and predictions for the next 20 years point toward colder than normal temperatures. We may well be entering a period akin to the Little Ice Age, a time of widespread crop failures, hunger, and lower life expectancies due to disease. In response to this crisis, the Democratic Congress is busy passing new taxes that make it more expensive to heat homes, fuel cars, and grow food.

The most recent scientific evidence demonstrates that the whole idea of global warming orchestrated by Al Gore and his green friends in Congress is simply a fraud. Global warming is simply a fiction dreamed up by the same anti-growth intellectuals who have always opposed capitalism. Long before the advent of global warming, this same crowd railed against suburban "sprawl," as they called it-while those who were lucky enough to move to the suburbs called it "the good life." This same anti-growth gang warned that evil computers like HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey would take over the world and murder us all while we were sleeping.

After Three Mile Island, the same foolish fear mongers passed legislation to shut down nuclear energy development, and now we're paying for that bad energy policy. These same eco-Democrats blocked the construction of new oil refineries, so we're paying $4 a gallon for gas. They shut down most oil and gas exploration in the U.S., so we're 70% dependent on foreign nations who use our petrodollars to sponsor terrorism. They continue to block utilities from burning cheap coal, so now we're paying five times what we should for electricity.

As if this were not enough, the eco-Democrats have decided that Americans should not eat. Current legislation mandates that 85% of the corn crop must be burned to produce ethanol. If you think $4 a gallon is a lot to pay for milk, think again. The Democrats want you to pay $16.

Now Democrats in the House of Representatives have passed a bill to add an additional $18 billion each year to the cost of gasoline. They are on the verge of passing a "cap and trade" bill that will add an additional $100 billion each year to the price of energy. Conveniently, this $100 billion would be collected by the government and used for discretionary spending on the many new programs proposed by Senator Barack Obama. All of this while vast reserves-15 trillion barrels of oil and even greater supplies of natural gas, according to the latest estimate-lie just under our feet.

The energy policy of the Democratic Congress is designed to bankrupt this country, and it is doing a good job of it already. High food and fuel prices are the direct result of the costly restrictions and taxation passed by previous Democratic Congresses, going all the way back to the fiasco of the Carter years. How impoverished does this country have to become before the public understands this?

It's getting colder in this country, not warmer, yet Congress is just getting started with costly new programs to combat global warming. Global warming is a fiction, but carbon restrictions would not lower global temperatures, even if they were rising. So Congress has decided to bankrupt the United States-nothing is said about the emissions of China or India, or the rest of the "developing" nations-to "combat" a fiction with a fiction. Brilliant!

Not only is it getting colder: Americans are getting poorer, and Congress thinks that the solution is to pass new taxes on energy. It's expensive enough to heat our homes as it is, but Congress wants to make it more expensive. For this, we have the green lobby and its enablers in Congress to blame. Those professional politicians have spent their lives pandering to the environmental lobbyists. It's time they were held accountable.

It is the fault of these same people that gas is $4 a gallon and rising. It's their fault that milk is over $4 a gallon, eggs are $2 a dozen, and everything else we buy is twice what it ought to be.

It's time to stand up to those who have sold out the American people to gain favor with the environmental lobby. All those who for decades have blocked the drilling of oil in Alaska, those who voted to require burning 85% of our corn crop to produce ethanol need to be booted out, those who support "cap and trade" need to trade their soft seats in Congress for a real job in the real economy.

The leading culprits are Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, but there are plenty of others, even some Republicans. If we show them the door in November, maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to keep the wolf from our door later on.

Dr. Jeffrey Folks taught for thirty years in universities in Europe, America, and Japan. He has published nine books and over a hundred articles on American culture and politics in national journals and newspapers. He is currently writing on issues in American literature, media, family, and education.