True North

Uh oh.

So let me get this straight. If the president won't sign on to the global warming scam, the governors will? I guess we can just toss the whole interstate commerce clause (and sovereignty) out the window and get ready to bend over and prepare for skyrocketing energy prices and Al Gore-style environmentalist governing.

Yes, thanks to the Midwestern Governors Association, we now have to worry about the global warming hype creeping into our lives - and instead of just watching it on TV as NBC goes to the poles to show us first hand how "global warming" is destroying this planet, it will be hitting us square between the eyes and in our pocketbooks.

So, ten Midwestern "leaders" - Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin, Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois, Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Governor Chester J. Culver of Iowa, Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio, Governor M. Michael Rounds of South Dakota, and Premier Gary Doer of Manitoba - signed the Midwestern Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord.

What does this mean? Well, the accord is supposed to be a regional strategy to achieve energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming (to be fully implemented within 30 months) by:

• Establishing greenhouse gas reduction targets and timeframes consistent with MGA member states’ targets (translation: Targets will be consistent with the 60 to 80 percent recommended by the IPCC)
• Developing a market-based and multi-sector cap-and-trade mechanism to help achieve those reduction targets
• Establishing a system to enable tracking, management, and crediting for entities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Developing and implement additional steps as needed to achieve the reduction targets, such as a low-carbon fuel standards and regional incentives and funding mechanisms

Now, correct me if I'm wrong here, but this sounds an awful lot like An Inconvenient Truth redux. All I read here is a plan outlined to raise taxes, increase energy costs and harm the economy. And for what? Global warming? Come on, haven't we been down this road time and again? I didn't realize that the Midwestern "leaders" had signed on to the Al Gore "the debate is over" bandwagon, but here we are, with a signed accord telling everybody that their agenda is more important than the people in their region.

As if this isn't bad enough, it doesn't just end here. Along with the accord, the group along with Nebraska and North Dakota signed an Energy Security and Climate Stewardship Platform that "establishes shared goals for the Midwest region, including specific timelines for the advance of energy efficiency, the promotion of biobased products, the production of renewable electricity, and the development of advance coal and carbon capture and storage."

This platform is to address:

• CO2 management to create a regional transportation and storage infrastructure
• A bioproduct procurement program to support the growth of the region’s bioeconomy
• Electricity transmission adequacy to support thousands of new megawatts of wind energy
• Renewable fuels corridors and coordinated signage to promote renewable fuel usage across the Midwest
• Advanced bioenergy permitting to assist states with the latest technologies
• Low-carbon energy transmission infrastructure that will provide a cost-effective way to supply the Midwest with sustainable and environmentally responsible energy

So again, what does this mean to us? It means increased energy costs, more biofuel pushes (which actually contribute to global warming), more taxes and fees, increased food costs as more land is taken up by biofuel production... Need I go on?

This is an alarming move by the Midwest "leaders" and the fact that they have included the premier of Manitoba means that the idea of sovereignty comes second in the face of environmentalism. I'm not sure that this is a path that we should be going down, yet the bandwagon is rolling, and as the hype reaches epic proportions, more people are willing to jump on board.

To add insult to injury, the notorious liberal governor from Wisconsin, Jim Doyle, who also happens to chair this group, proves just how delusional they are with this statement:

“This is a momentous day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Leaders from across the Midwest are charting a new energy direction for our citizens, our nation, and our world, creating high-paying jobs for our citizens and building a cleaner and safer world for generations to come. Our strong manufacturing base and rich agricultural industries, along with the wealth of resources in our vast northern forests and our world-leading research universities, position the Midwest to become the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy.”

What?? The Saudi Arabia of renewable energy? This guy is off his rocker and he's dragging the rest of us with him! Not to mention the other flaws in this statement:
"creating high paying jobs?"
"strong manufacturing base?"
"wealth of resources in our vast northern forests?"
What planet are these people living on, because it sure isn't planet Earth. This action stands to devastate the economy and take away high paying jobs as industry flees to more business-friendly environments, and as I have already written about ad nauseum, we hardly have a strong manufacturing base any longer. And what do they intend to do with our "vast" forests? I'm confused... Unless they plan on turning that land into corn crop so we can better position ourselves as the "Saudi Arabia of renewable energy."

This is just unreal, and I think we're in deep trouble here. We don't need to wait for the Kyoto accord to reach us. We have the Midwest governors bringing us to the Kyoto accord.

I think I just heard my pocketbook groan.

Cross posted from A [sometimes] Logical View of the Illogical, comments welcome.