Opinion: Big Business and Climate Cronyism, by Lewis Morris

Market solutions, not top-down control, are the best way to address the climate.

By Lewis Morris, Patriot Post, Nov. 26, 2019

After all the endless debate over climate change, the central topic of conversation remains what to do about our CO₂ output. Carbon dioxide — now at record levels — is blamed for rising surface temperatures, which aren’t rising as fast as we are led to believe. And America is blamed as the cause, even though the U.S. pumps less CO₂ into the atmosphere than countries that have joined the Paris Climate Accord. In any case, an unlikely group has gotten behind a new plan to reduce CO₂ emissions, and the makeup of this group has many on both sides of the political aisle scratching their heads.

The Climate Leadership Council (CLC) is made up a who’s who of Republican and Democrat lawmakers, consultants, and policy wonks who have supposedly come up with a plan to develop a “revenue neutral” carbon tax that would provide dividends to low- and middle-income Americans to offset the inevitable higher energy costs that would be produced by said tax.

The CLC plan has the support of several energy producers, including ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips and other oil and natural-gas companies. It might sound intriguing at first glance, but as with all things revolving around climate policy, it’s necessary to drill deeper.

This plan appears to be an attempt by energy producers to eliminate their competition in the coal sector. Any carbon tax is sure to hit coal producers the hardest, and leftists have not been shy about their desire to remove coal from our energy options altogether. They have found a fair-weather ally in oil and natural-gas producers.  ….

Read more here: https://patriotpost.us/articles/66997-big-business-and-climate-cronyism-2019-11-26