Climate Summit Reality

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright Dec. 7, 2009
All Rights Reserved.                    

           Marking the first day of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, Monday, Dec. 7, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under administrator Lisa Jackson declared that greenhouse gases and climate changed threatened the health, safety and welfare of U.S. citizens.  Departing from the Bush administration, President Barack Obama’s EPA asserts unequivocally that overwhelming scientific evidence prove that manmade greenhouse gasses endanger American lives.  Bush’s EPA expressed doubt about manmade greenhouse gases causing global warming and corresponding climate change, attributing it, including verified melting glaciers and polar icecaps, to natural geologic and atmospheric changes.  Businesses connected with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce worry that the costs of retrofitting new pollution equipment could cost billions, harming U.S. Gross Domestic Product.

            Running out in 2012, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol requires a modern-day overhaul based on reluctance of the United States, the world’s biggest polluter, to make the sacrifice necessary to reduce its carbon footprint.  Bold in its day, the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, required 137 signatories to reduce greenhouse gases [carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and sulfur hexafouride].  Kyoto required member-states to reduce greenhouse gasses by 5.2 below 1990 levels.  Today’s announcement by the EPA forces the regulation of greenhouse gases.  “The threat is real,” said Jackson, referring to the recognized danger of carbon pollution.  “If we don’t act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions the planet we will leave the future will be very different than the one we know today,” said Jackson, signaling Obama’s commitment to Copenhagen.

            Reducing greenhouse gasses requires the EPA to crackdown on individual and corporate polluters, costing business and industry considerable cash to retool.  Since the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that the EPA had the authority to regulate greenhouse gasses, it gave the EPA the green light.  “This cements 2009’s place in history as the year the U.S. government began seriously addressing the challenge of greenhouse gas pollution,” said Jackson, telegraphing that after 12 years of noncompliance the U.S. is finally ready for Kyoto.  Bush administration officials refused to accept the greenhouse gas theory of climate change, now regarded by the new EPA as the gospel.  Scientists correlate closely greenshouse gasses with climate change but can’t state with certainty whether today’s global warming is indeed caused by manmade pollution or the earth’s natural cycle.

            In advance of the Copenhagen Summit, expecting Obama’s dramatic primetime endorsement next week, conservative groups have been marshaling the contrary research to refute Barack’s expected endorsement of a new climate change protocol.  Conservatives claim to refute mainstream environmental science but in reality oppose climate change because of its price to the business community.  “In light of the EPA endangerment findings, the President’s appearance in Copenhagen will carry even more weight, because it shows that American is taking this issue very seriously and is moving forward,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee.  Boxer would like the Senate to adopt a House bill that caps U.S. carbon emissions at 17% below the 2005 levels by 2020.  Enforcement could be a problem for the EPA.

            Conservatives believe it’s not fair for the EPA to regulate CO2  pollution like it does hydrocarbons, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexoflouride or other known measurable pollutants and byproducts of internal combustion engines.  Conservatives believe the EPA has a responsibility under the Clean Air Act to regulate measurable pollutants, not  carbon dioxide because it’s too ubiquitous to attempt to regulate without cap-and-trade legislation.  Regulating CO2 singles out businesses unfairly as polluters, when it’s a bi-product of respiration by all animal species.  “An endangerment finding from the EPA could result in a top-down command-and-control regime that will choke off growth by adding new mandates to virtually every construction and renovation project,” said U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and ECO Thomas J. Donohu, opposed to regulating greenhouse gasses..

            Obama’s challenge at the Copenhagen Summit is to balance reasonable U.S.  participation against selling American business and the economy down the river.  Expected cap-and-trade legislation, designed to tax carbon polluters, should help the EPA’s new mandate to treat CO2 like other known fossil fuel pollutants and carcinogens.  Since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the U.N. has sought responsible U.S. participation as the world’s biggest industrial carbon polluter.  “Every positive announcement will improve our chances of staying below the CO2 target,” said Copenhagen Summit Director Connie Hedgegaard, former Danish environment minister.  “But we know only too well, we are not there yet,” referring to current worldwide commitments to reduce carbon pollution.  Since there’s a price for civilization, Green groups must control their zealotry with the realities of modern life.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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