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The temperature on New Year’s Day in Chicago was a balmy 50 degrees F. More evidence of global warming? Hardly.
The five New Year’s Days with the highest temperatures occurred in
1876, 1897, 1892, 1890, and 1891, all long before human greenhouse gas
emissions could have played a role in changing climate. The one thing
we know for sure about the weather is that it is always changing.
But the warm weather will fuel more hot rhetoric about global
warming, a public policy issue that could have a major effect on our
freedoms and our pocketbooks in the coming years.
Why it Matters
Global warming is the biggest environmental issue of our
time. Its political and economic impacts will be larger than those
associated with any other environmental issue.
 Government power: Public policies being proposed at the
international, national, and state levels in the name of “stopping
global warming” would result in a massive increase in the size and
power of the state. To reduce emissions, governments must raise energy
costs directly, with taxes, or indirectly, with mandates and subsidies.
Either way, hundreds of billions of dollars a year in wealth or
economic activity will be sucked up and redistributed by governments.
For advocates of limited government, the debate over global warming is
one of the preeminent issues of our time.
Economic harm: Energy is the “master resource,” used in the
creation of nearly all other goods and services. Making energy
artificially scarce therefore imposes enormous economic costs. Global
warming legislation being considered by Congress would more than cancel
out the beneficial effects of the Bush tax cuts.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions even modestly is estimated to cost
the average household in the U.S. a cool $3,372 per year and would
destroy 2.4 million jobs. Electricity prices would double, and
manufacturers would move their factories to places such as China and
India that have cheaper energy and fewer environmental regulations. Read rest...
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