It was 10 April 2007. Senator Kerry and Former Congressman Newt Gingrich appeared to debate one another on Global Warming. Newt Gingrich left John Kerry flabbergasted. He looked even more tongue-tied than he did during the 2004 Presidential Election. The Senator came to debate a Denialist and wound up having to hug the tree harder than his GOP opponent. Gingrich made the following statement during his debate with Senator Kerry.
Gingrich didn’t hesitate. “My message,” he said, “is that the evidence is sufficient that we should move towards the most effective possible steps to reduce carbon loading of the atmosphere.” The pro-Kerry crowd applauded. “And do it urgently?” the senator pressed. “And do it urgently, yeah,” the former speaker replied. “I think there has to be, if you will, a green conservatism,” he added.
That was then. Like Mitt Romney promising to kill ObamaCare, or Senator John McCain at least verbally supporting a money-saving move of merging the EPA to the DOE, Newt could have publically walked away from his past association with Global Warming Lobby. Tim Pawlenty did just that before the first GOP debate.
Yet he hasn’t, and walking back his prior stance in favor of regulating Carbon Loading to combat Global Warming will not be an easy task. Gingrich is in the YouTube Hall of Fame for his commercial about AGW in which he co-starred with Nancy Pelosi. A Colorado Group called The American Tradition Partnership brings Gingrich’s record of Anti-Global Warming activism out into the light.
They responded to Newt Gingrich’s announcement of candidacy as follows:
“American Tradition Partnership welcomes Newt Gingrich’s entry into the Democrat presidential primary, where his decades-long record of radical ‘green’ activism will make for a close contest between he and President Obama for the liberal base,” ATP executive director Donald Ferguson said in a release.
Ferguson wasn’t through attempting to list the Georgia Newt as an endangered political species. He continues the assault on Gingrich’s environmental pro-regulation stance below.
“Gingrich’s 2008 TV ad he recorded at the request of Al Gore, where he snuggles on a love seat with Nancy Pelosi and blames the American economy for so-called ‘global warming’ is the kind of manifesto that really speaks to radical environmentalists.”
(HT: ColoradoIndependent, ObCit.)
So why would this hurt Gingrich? He’s cute as a fuzzy and crunchy Enviro-Con. If only it were as simple as they cute, little owl saying “Give a hoot. Don’t pollute.” Then Gingrich would be an asset. But it’s not an asset, and Gingrich’s beliefs could get a lot of American industrial plants shut down. Ironically, if AGW is actually happening, American Greens could make it much worse. Here’s how the diabolical economic conundrum works.
Cap and Trade, Carbon Taxes and production limits all effectively do the same things. They cause the American economy to produce less. President Obama has gone on record supporting EPA regulations to accomplish this task. “America has 2% of the world’s population and produces 25% of its pollution.” Environmentalists sonorously preach.
What never gets examined is the proper comparison. Per marginal unit of production, how much do American factories pollute? In comparison to factories in China, Mexico, Brazil or India, per marginal unit of production, how much do American factories pollute? Perhaps the recent birth of a bicephalous Chinese Baby is merely anecdotal and has no bearing on the levels of pollution released by Chinese industry. Perhaps not.
Whether the Chinese have greater levels of pollution per marginal unit of production is vital. They were not playing ball in either Kyoto or Copenhagen. Any AGW targeting that American regulators do will be unilateral. It will target only American; and not foreign industrial production.
Thus, corporations would have yet another reason why hiring Americans can be deemed as economically stupid. Industries operating in the US of A already have $1.75 Trillion reasons a year not to hire the Goddam Yankees as it is. The businesses not doing business in the US will do it elsewhere instead.
If “elsewhere” implies a place that is so utterly polluted that women give birth to bicephalous kids, than every unit of production outsourced from the US to “elsewhere” will add to the deleterious environmental impact of economic activity by the marginal difference in pollution per unit between the US and “elsewhere.” This is how American Greens knock-down the double shot. They not only ruin the US economy by getting US workers fired, they also kill the planet by having all the same things produced in dirtier factories, using cheaper labor “elsewhere.”
Thus, the Crunchy-Con mandate becomes vastly clear. We must save our world. We must preserve our industrial economy. We must hug our herbaceous borders. We must vote for somebody other than Newt Gingrich in the upcoming GOP primaries.
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