The Environmental Protection Agency is about to impose regulations and taxes on carbon emissions by execu tive fiat in the name of stopping global climate change. Yet the United States has already dramatically cut its emissions and probably has already complied with the Kyoto/Copenhagen goals for reduced emissions.
And we’ve done it without taxes, regulations or government intervention.
In 2007, the US emitted 6.12 billion metric tons of carbon. In 2008, the total fell to 5.92 billion tons.
In 2009, while President Obama was promising that the country would cut its emissions to 5 billion tons by 2015, the US economy and public — on their own — cut to 5.5 billion. Most likely, by the time the 2010 measurements are in, we’ll have reached the Obama goal.
Many attribute this to the Great Recession — a slower economy uses less power and pollutes less. But US emissions started dropping before the recession and have continued to fall.
A big part of the reason is that we’re using less coal in generating electricity.
As we explain in our new book, “Revolt!” (due out next week), coal accounted for 52 percent of electric generation in 1996 but accounts for only 45 percent today. And coal’s share is down 4 percent in just the last 12 months.
Natural gas has almost doubled its share, from 13 percent in 1996 to 23 percent in 2009, while renewables (solar, geothermal, etc.) have risen from 2 percent to 4 percent.
The free-enterprise system has responded to persuasion and incentives without the heavy hand of taxation, government regulation and coercion.
These data expose the basic truth: Neither the cap-and-trade bill nor EPA carbon regulation is needed to lower US emissions. The bureaucratic/environmentalist alliance wants these measures to increase public control over our economy, not to fight global warming.
Just as the Obama stimulus package was designed to increase public spending, not to stimulate anything, so the environmental regulations are exploiting public concern over climate change to ratify a growth in government power and oversight.
And that’s the inconvenient truth.