Something In The Air: Lies and Mass Guilt
A news release came across my desk the other morning making my blood boil yet again. It read:
ALERT: It looks like the climate bill debate has already been decided by Washington and voters didn’t even have a chance to say “NO!” A staggering $65 billion dollars has been transferred from the private sector to fund the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI.) RGGI is government created entity that is choking companies in the northeast with huge tax increases in the name of the environment. Our tax dollars are funding this secret climate initiative. Soon RGGI will expand to every state and stick you with astronomical energy prices.
If blood-boiling is contributing to Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW), I’m guilty as charged. But AGW does not exist and CO2 is a necessary gas for life. We are a carbon-based planet. It’s a good thing. Yet, once again we are looking at regulations on the false assertion that man-made CO2 emissions are wrecking the planet. Years of indoctrinating the public into false guilt over a lie created to benefit more government agencies and bureaucrats is a scourge on America’s economic health.
Like most of you, I had never heard of RGGI. So I went looking. I don’t know how “secret” it is, since it is right here on the web for all to see. But, the salaries of the board of RGGI are not public information. The operating expenses are not public information. It is a major carbon-trading organization set up to regulate energy sources and usage in the northeastern and middle Atlantic states. The revelation for me is that it exists. Did you know this quasi-government entity has been created to regulate energy sources and usage?
It is set up as a non-profit carbon (CO2) trading auction house. A board of directors will be deciding how it is run and who gets what money. Government grants are in play. Compliance in the 10 Northeastern and middle Atlantic states is MANDATORY, since they are named as “signatories.” Who signed them up? The governors? The legislatures? The feds have just handed over $65 billion of our tax dollars to RGGI. That’s billion – with a B.
Supposedly this RGGI implementation is a prelude to Cap and Trade legislation. According to AmeriPAC, the source of the news release, “The only impact RGGI has made so far is they have raised energy prices and created a slush fund for each member state. What exactly that money is being used for is unclear. Each state is capped on their carbon emissions and taxed if they use them up. RGGI added a 0.9% increase in energy prices in New England.”
I haven’t yet figured out how a non-profit is able to set up MANDATORY regulations. This non-profit organization has not been voted into existence by the public. The RGGI site says, “The Signatory States are collectively developing a draft Model Rule to serve as the framework for the creation of necessary statutory and/or regulatory authority to establish the Program.” In other words, states signing onto this non-profit are in the process of creating legislation to comply with this carbon auction house.
How long before North Carolina is drawn into another regional RGGI? Did taxpayers in North Carolina vote to hand over their money to RGGI? Did our representatives in D.C. vote to do this? The wholesale joke here is supposedly that this might allow some kind of avoidance of the federal Cap and Trade legislation. The thinking here is that instead of federal Cap and Trade, the same will be accomplished in regions. More likely, RGGI is laying the groundwork for the federal Cap and Trade legislation. Either way, compliance is MANDATORY.
From the RGGI site comes this revelation: “Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe expressed support yesterday for making electric utilities pay fees for releasing carbon dioxide, giving Senate Democrats a critical Republican supporter in their stalled pursuit of climate legislation. Snowe is highlighting the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a 10-state program capping emissions from 233 power plants from Maine to Maryland, as a “template” that could be adopted at the national level…”
Who do you think is going to ultimately pay those fees for releasing carbon dioxide? The consumer is. Not only will the consumer pay taxes to pay the Feds for offsetting grants, and pay for implementation of the mandatory regulations, but they will also be faced with higher utility bills. And for what? A problem that doesn’t exist. A lie.
People who benefit from lies will do anything to justify their motives and support their deception with more lies. Control freaks will do anything to get power and money: setting up endless government bureaucracies and non-profits using government money, hiring untold numbers of more government-reliant employees, all of it based on lies and misplaced guilt over something that does not exist. Nice work if you can get it.
The methods of the left have worked in the past, so they just keep it up. Mass guilt created over elderly retirements became Social Security. Mass guilt created over elderly medical needs became Medicare. Mass guilt created over racial problems became Affirmative Action. All of those guilt-ridden programs were based on collective guilt, not individual responsibilities. And all of this guilt adds up to a lot of money for socialist programs.
They got away with it before, so they are trying to get away with it again. Mass guilt, in this case based on nonsense, is capitalized on by socialists. Who says socialists aren’t capitalists? They sure know how to capitalize on lies and creating mass guilt. It’s their stock and trade.
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