Guest Opinion by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho
Climate Change Battle Cry: Bali or Bust!?
By Sen. Larry Craig, 12-03-07
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Al Gore’s latest effort to protect the planet from mankind just goes to show that, as in the movies, sequels rarely live up to the hype. The newest stage for the world’s most popular former vice-president will be the tiny resort island of Bali, where next week he will assemble a cast of thousands. As it has done for the past dozen years, the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties ("COP") will feature a plot line that could be titled “The UN Knows Best”.
Meanwhile, after a year of posturing over energy and climate legislation, Democrats in Congress have decided it is finally time to get serious about passing something - at this point anything would do.
On energy, the House appears to be close to agreement on two provisions I sponsored with Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-SD) in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Increasing both auto mileage standards and cleaner fuels from cellulosic biomass were the cornerstones of the Dorgan-Craig SAFE Energy Act that were included in the Senate passed energy bill this past summer. These provisions will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and they’ll also reduce greenhouse gas emissions - a true “win-win” for our security and the environment.
In the Environment and Public Works Committee, Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) hopes to strike a symbolic victory for Europeans everywhere by merely passing a bill out of committee to leave the impression that the United States is ready to follow Europe’s lead on climate change. In addition to raising energy costs further, her bill would export what’s left of our manufacturing jobs, all for a negligible and debatable impact on global temperatures. Fortunately, her all-pain, no-gain strategy has no chance of actually becoming law, but it’ll sure make for a scenic press conference in Bali.
Senator Boxer’s goal of waving a symbolic, yet meaningless, committee-passed bill in Bali will demonstrate nothing more than her intent to revert the United States to a developing country. I, of course, plan to vote against the bill in committee, and many of us on the committee will do our best to discuss the real need to balance clean energy with our energy security. But for at least another year the Democrats control the politicking on these issues, even if they aren’t likely to have any of it signed into law.
I’ve been to three of the last six “COP” conferences, so I’d expect the COP-13 crowd will be singing a familiar tune. Sen. Boxer will be welcomed as the liberator, and Al Gore will probably receive another award, but in the end, the only impact the conference will have will be the pollution and consumption they all create in traveling to Bali in the first place.
Reducing emissions need not be so painful. The United States has reduced the intensity of our emissions steadily during the last 7 years. We do it by using cleaner energy, not less energy, while growing our economy. Energy from hydropower, cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel, geothermal, solar, and wind - the same choices Idaho has already made - this is why Idaho continues to simultaneously lead the country in fewest greenhouse gasses emitted and lowest power rates paid.
As nuclear power also becomes a more viable option for growing states like Idaho, we can avoid suffering for symbolism, and continue to keep things cool in our own backyard, even if there’s nothing but hot air in Bali.
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Comments
That is welcome news.
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=59846
This, despite the best efforts of Sen. Craig and his ilk over the years to pretend the USA does not exist on the Planet Earth, where all our actions are connected.
Australia got a standing ovation today. When did that last happen to the USA?
Gee, let's see...perhaps after liberating Europe, stopping the genocide in the Balkans, or sending the 7th fleet to provide food, water, and medical aid after the Indonesian tsunami....
But no. Senator Craig crows about “nuclear energy becoming more viable” in Idaho, as if that will ever happen. Nuclear is much too expensive, much too dangerous from a national security standpoint, and I for one don’t relish spending the next 10,000 years keeping track of radioactive waste generated just so my own generation could heat my home inefficiently.
I’m convinced that nuclear energy is dying a well-deserved death in the United States, even though we will spend billions of taxpayer dollars over the next few years hiding the fact that we have much simpler, safer, and more economical answers to our energy needs.
Senator Craig also trumpets the “reduced intensity of our emissions during the last 7 years.” His sleight-of-hand here is the word “intensity,” which hides the true fact that that the total greenhouse gases emitted continue to grow, even as their apparent intensity descrease. “Decreased energy intensity” means that industries are allowed to increase their overall greenhouse gas outputs as they raise their production of goods—not at all what we need to reduce the overall greenhouse gas impact in the world.
Global warming is just that—“global.” Instead of mocking the rest of the world as the gather in Bali to work towards a global solution, Senator Craig prefers to raise the United Nations “boogie man,” instead of realizing that we must all work together to solve the largest crisis humanity has yet faced.
And how is it that I can read a whole bunch of different things that say biodiesel/ethanol takes more energy to grow, harvest and transport than it actually creates, and yet it keeps getting thrown up as the answer to everything? Oh yeah, ConAgra lobbyists--I always forget about them. Let's face it, our politicians are all working for the special interest lobbies and they're all going to run us into the ground.
Your transparent effort to do yet another suck-up to the big energy companies in hopes of landing a post senate consulting gig is pathetic. Please Senator, try to catch a clue, global warming is real, and you are not helping.
Please go away. Soon.
I applaud his gastric rhetoric and ability to run down the Bali Conference. He can't get it come hell or high water that global warming is indeed happening as he dances the light fantastic around the facts.
I will pray he leaves quickly and leaves the heavy lifting to those who know the work and are willing to do the right thing.
Vote Democrat for Idaho!!!! This is estential for our State.. and I'm an Indepdent.
How about making Idaho Power buy all wind power energy from Private property. There are tons of people all over Idaho who would put windmills on their land if the State would require that Idaho Power buy it. Other states are doing this.. let's help everyone in our state.. Not put a Nuke plant less than 60 miles from Boise.. You Suck!!!! No pun intended Lar!
Our delegation never saw lobbyist bucks they wouldn't pass up.
The nuke beat still goes on. Read John Weber's piece in this same issue.
Not only is the 19th Century over, so's the 20th. It's time the paleo-westerners stopped trying to strut around in fancy cowboy boots and faced reality.
Your strident and sarcastic opinion would pack more punch if you had been more effective during your time in Congress at actually doing something useful in the realm of energy. Did we miss something? All you have to offer is whithering criticism of the efforts of others.
I am most dismayed by the fact that you think you can read Senator Boxer's mind, and feel free to criticize "her intent to revert the United States to a developing country."
I also don't appreciate the misdirection of your statement that "the United States has reduced the intensity of our emissions steadily during the last 7 years," by which I suppose you mean that in spite of our emissions having increased over that time, we're getting "more" out of them. Well, good for us, but unfortunately, not so good for the planet we live in.
I understand a certain bitterness from you given all that's transpired lately, but since you're bound and determined to stay in office, and we have to keep paying your salary, we expect some productive work from you, OK?
So the proposed plant in Payette County is on Bettis property?! Fer chrissakes...that's crony-ism at its finest.
Now that we've taken care of that mindless finger wagging, could we move on to a salient point? U.S. air carriers are currently moving 71 million passengers a month.
Complex negotiations between large groups is not possible through "teleconferencing via the net," but nice try.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601170&refer=home&sid=aPbfclqokwcw
If you can dismiss the carbon footprint of those who "believe", how can you expect anyone else to take it seriously?
I know this is really, really hard for you to understand, but not all criticism is valid, much less useful.
As I have said before all of the big ideas that greens have come up with that require sacrifice have been things they could push off on the other guy, but the blatant hypocrisy of insisting that common folks sacrifice dearly while the "talk a lot big shots" burn fuel as fast as it can be pumped out of the ground is going too far. Just stop and think how much fuel has been burned in the name of stopping global warming by all of the people flocking to see Gore's movie, by all of the flying around to concerts, meetings, talks, etc. It would boggle the mind.
Come on! "If the rich don't sacrafice for our ecosystem, I'm not gong to either!" What is wrong with you. Our planet is innocent. The US is much better then the rest of the world. Gore's biggest issues are not on our own soil. The issues are global....
We all need to take a lead from what Gore is saying.. we don't have to believe all of it. However, as citizens of this world we have a responsibility to ourselves to leave it a better place. We shouldn't be digging in our heals about Gore but running with bigger and better ideas.
Proactive! not spoiled school yard attitudes.
You long ago decided that global warming was being "pushed" by blatantly hypocritical elites as a personal conspiracy to make you miserable.
You say "either we all have to cut back or no one does." This is called "black and white thinking," and is a fundamental logical fallacy. Let's start with something easy. Do you understand that this a fallacy?
It also provides a convenient excuse to do nothing, which you (apparently) and others of your ilk are happy to use. Why should I sacrifice ANYTHING if Al Gore has a big house and flies to Bali?
If you can't figure it out, I can provide a simple answer for you. GOD IS TELLING YOU TO DO THIS, RIGHT THERE IN THE BIBLE. Love your neighbor as yourself. Remove the beam from thine own eye before criticizing the mote in another's.
There is so much to boggle your mind, don't limit yourself just to Al Gore.
Since it's such a popular position on the right to say "why should I do anything, look at what a hypocrite Al Gore is!" I'm guessing he's been asked and answered the questions many times. Have you taken a look to see who he responds to people telling him what he should do?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/05/AR2007120502234.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Robert Redford is entertaining, as usual, but don't we have to know all about his lifestyle before we decide whether his arguments are worth paying attention to?