The Skunking of the Green New Deal

U.S. Rep Edward Markey addresses America’s Digital Inclusion Summit at The Newseum, March 9, 2010. Photo courtesy of the FCC.

It’s telling that the chief sponsor of the Green New Deal – Sen. Ed Markey – bonded with his fellow senators and rejected a procedural vote (57-0) to bring the GND to the floor. Now some climate alarmists are demanding that Republicans come up with their own plan. Steve Milloy makes his case with four reasons for Republicans not to do this.

• Cutting U.S. emissions won’t have much of an effect on the climate. If the U.S. went dark and magically stopped emitting CO2, the rest of the world will continue to emit, and there would make no discernible difference in mean global temperature.
• Claims of reductions in national emissions should be taken with a grain of salt. A billion people around the world live without electricity. As long as people living in poverty and seek a way out, CO2 emissions will rise
• The only thing certain about CO2 is that it’s necessary for life on Earth. It’s plant food. The notion that climate change is necessarily bad is an assumption, and possibly an unfounded one. (Average temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere have been warming since about 1650, the end what is known as the Little Ice Age.)
• Pointlessly wrecking the U.S. economy is bad politics. Climate routinely ranks at or near the bottom in polls of voter priorities, and climate alarmism has never been a political winner. A recent example: the skunking of the estimated $5.4 trillion Green New Deal.

Mr. Milloy publishes JunkScience.com, and is author of “Scare Pollution: Why and How to Fix the EPA.”

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