Cap and Trade Shocker: Will Americans Be Forced by Commerce Sec. Gary Locke & Democrats to Pay for China’s Global Warming Emissions?
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 20, 2009
Not all nations are embracing global warming taxes and regulations. India isn’t interested in cap-and-trade legislature, despite the pleadings of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on how it will help its poor rise out of poverty. China is not willing to pay for its country’s cap-and-trade emission control.
So, for now, America’s on notice. At least with China’s unwillingness to participate in cap and trade legislation. If they don’t want to pay… well, then, heck, make AMERICANS pay for it.
It looks like Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, a man appointed by Obama but barely vetted nor voted for by the American people, has decided that because of Americans buying China-made products, we are the dastardly villains in China’s global warming contribution.
Per Locke, China is blameless, since the nation was seduced by American capitalist pigs waving wads of dollars at them and they regrettably adding to the global warming myth by manufacturing products for American consumption.
It would make sense, then, for the Democrats to alter a truly horrible bill that Americans don’t want so that it is even worse (remember, there is a blank spot—a convenient, troubling, empty placeholder, if you will—in the global warming tax bill. This blank area permits Democrats to add anything they want, anytime they want to the energy tax bill, with no scrutiny or vote. Democrat House Rep Barney Frank said in June this placeholder was a “good thing” to include, and we needed to trust them, have confidence in them, to add only good additions… feeling outraged yet?). In addition to America’s cap-and-trade obligations, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has announced that he’s decided that American taxpayers are duty-bound to pay for China’s, too.
Have we offered to pay for India’s, too? Crikey, this runaway power-grab train is about to derail…
This potentially newest Draconian direction of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-tax energy bill is this: When will this Congress and Obama administration just line Americans up and stick a needle directly into a vein to withdraw a few pints of blood whenever they want it?
Why is Locke empowered to changing laws and mandates for Americans? No one voted or vetted him. This is sinister stuff. Contact your senators… this horrible Waxman-Markey bill can still be defeated. Americans potentially paying for America’s emissions is bad enough… adding last-minute payment for China’s emissions, or any other nation’s, is another. Another travesty that will destroy America.
From New York Times:
India Rebuffs Efforts for Binding Carbon Targets
By Mark Landler | July 19, 2009GURGAON, India — India served notice on Sunday that it remains opposed to legally binding targets to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, digging in its heels against the United States as the Obama administration begins marshaling support for a new global agreement on climate change.
India voiced its rejection of the American position in an awkwardly public forum: during a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to an energy-efficient office building here on the outskirts of New Delhi that was supposed to celebrate cooperation between India and the United States on climate policy.
In a closed-door meeting with Mrs. Clinton after she marveled at the building’s high-tech features, India’s environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, said, “There is simply no case for the pressure that we, who have among the lowest emissions per capita, face to actually reduce emissions.”
“If this pressure is not enough,” he continued, “we also face the threat of carbon tariffs on our exports to countries such as yours.”
Mr. Ramesh handed out his statement to reporters and reiterated his views at a news conference, with Mrs. Clinton and her special envoy for climate change, Todd Stern, standing stiffly behind him.
Excerpt from Wall Street Journal:
Commerce Secretary: Americans ‘Need to Pay’ for Chinese Emissions
Wall Street Journal
By Keith Johnson | July 17, 2009With the U.S. secretaries of energy and commerce in China this week, much of the attention focused on the standoff over emissions reductions or small breakthroughs in clean-tech cooperation.
But yesterday, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said something amazing—U.S. consumers should pay for part of Chinese greenhouse-gas emissions. From Reuters:
“It’s important that those who consume the products being made all around the world to the benefit of America — and it’s our own consumption activity that’s causing the emission of greenhouse gases, then quite frankly Americans need to pay for that,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke told the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.
The idea that rich-country consumers should pick up the tab for some of China’s industrial emissions has been gaining currency lately—but not from within the Obama administration. The argument is that many of China’s factories churn out cheap stuff for the West, not for domestic consumption, so those consumers are actually responsible for the emissions. China, of course, loves the idea.
From Hot Air: Commerce Secretary: America needs to pay for China’s emissions
This could happen in one of two ways. The Obama administration could make cap-and-tax more expensive in order to make up for the emissions from China, which would absolutely delight Beijing. In fact, that would allow them an easily-adjustable pressure point on the American economy by simply increasing their emissions. If the US increased the penalties for domestic emissions in order to compensate, the Chinese could sell their good much more cheaply in the US than domestic producers.
The other option would be energy-production tariffs on imported goods, which would touch off a trade war with China. That would make goods more expensive in the US at the same time energy bills begin to skyrocket, launching an inflationary spiral and begging China for retaliation. Since China holds a large amount of US debt, that retaliation could get extremely expensive for both countries.
The US does not need to pay for China’s carbon emissions, even if the “greenhouse effect” presents a danger to the planet, a theory which increasingly looks suspect. This is yet another version of the blame-America impulse in the Obama administration, one that will hit us all in the wallet — and in our outlets and furnaces.
Additional reading:
Michelle Malkin: Colorado’s Democrat governor refuses to endorse cap and tax and Cap-and-tax 8 hypocrisy watch: Reichert’s GaGa gag and Unshocked by Gary Locke and Chinagate-tainted Gary Locke “sails through” confirmation hearing and The Chinagate/Buddhist temple cash skeletons in Gary Locke’s closet and The whitewashing of Gary Locke — and why Tucker Carlson deserved to be booed and Culture of corruption watch: “Put nothing in writing…ever” and Cap and Tax 8 Watch: A letter to Dave Reichert and Get ready for health care tax-apalooza and Al Gore: If you question global warming cult, you’re a Nazi and Back to business: Stop the cap-and-tax bill and Cap-and-tax: Inhofe says it’s “dead in the water” and Obama to Democrats: Lincoln wants you to pass cap and trade and Video: EPA dissenter Alan Carlin speaks and Cap-and-Tax 8 Watch: Follow the money and Cap-and-tax job loss chart of the day; Plus: A Senate reading assignment and Al Gore blows more hot air and Meet the retrofit police
Citizen-Right: Dem Gary Locke Commerce Secretary nominee close ties to campaign finance crook John Huang
Track-A-’Crat: Time To Put This Dog Down
National Black Chamber of Commerce: NBCC Study Finds Waxman-Markey Reduces GDP by $350 Billion: New study finds Waxman-Markey could cost 2.5 million U.S. jobs each year through 2030 and reduce earnings
Dirty Democrats: Commerce Secretary Gary Locke Says US Should Pay For China’s Emissions
Beltway Snark: China’s Emission Problems All Our Fault
The Anchoress, First Things: No, you can’t see the numbers; the King is a Fink
GlobalWarming.org: Another Dem Governor Thinks Waxman-Markey is a Turkey
NEOAVATARA: Why We Need A New Path On Global Climate Change
Dwight Schultz, Big Hollywood: Obama’s EPA Ignores Inconvenient Truths
Prison Planet: IPCC Scientists Caught Producing False Data To Push Global Warming
Heritage Foundation: Beware of Cap and Trade Climate Bills
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Polar Bear Numbers Surge to 50-Year High, Obama’s Approval Rating Plunges to New Dismal Low and Just How Bad Is the HR 2454 Energy Tax Bill? Greenpeace Won’t Back It
Neoavatara: Does Obama Just Not Get It?
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Hot Air Green Room: A Howard Dean Classic: Your Child Being Freed From Asthma Will Pay for Cap & Trade
The Daley Gator: One of the Turncoat Eight RINOs explains his vote for cap and trade
VotingFemale Speaks! Cap and Trade GOP Eight; The Sellouts of America
Leigh Scott, Big Hollywood: Kill Polar Bears, Drink Coke to Save the Planet!
Sister Toldjah: Waxman: Not supporting Obama’s agenda means you are “against America”
Jim Blazsik: Peace through strength: a Reagan lesson for Barack Obama
Hot Air: Palin on cap-and-trade: Job-killer
The West Coast Outpost: Obama voters about to get punk’d
Burt Prelutsky, Big Hollywood: Principles? Leftists Don’t Need No Stinking Principles
Vets On The Watch: Earth Cooling Not Warming
The Patriot’s Mind: EPA Suppressed Own Report that Questions Global Warming!
RedState: Meet Carol Browner, Energy Czar.
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