Cap and Trade Legislation

The following was written in April 2014, as part of a response to the Campaign for Liberty's 2012 survey questionnaire for candidates running for federal office.

12. Will you oppose so-called “Cap and Trade” legislation?

     Yes, I will oppose all proposed federal “Cap and Trade” legislation.

     I will oppose all federal legislation to regulate carbon emissions and carbon offset exchanges – and the environment in general – in the United States (outside of the District of Columbia and the overseas territories) without a constitutional amendment authorizing such regulation.

     The federal government cannot afford the $100 to $200 billion in annual spending which such a nationwide scheme would entail, nor to risk corruption through the personal and business favors which would inevitably be involved in such an expensive undertaking.

     However, I believe that climate change is an imminent threat to civilization, and I agree with the narrow majority of Americans who believe that the environment is more important than employment and the economy. This majority has communicated signals on the marketplace for environmental goods and services and policy that fossil fuel use is not an ordinary “market good” because it is a “market bad” which must be discouraged; legislators must heed these signals.

     I will encourage state and local governments to discourage pollution through enacting their own Cap and Trade type legislation, while fully taxing the unimproved value of land. This will empower governments to punish those who pollute and cause the blighting of landed property, and allow it to fall into disrepair (resulting in a loss of value) and moreover could eventually allow states to eliminate taxes on income and sales while fully funding government.

     I will support legislation providing for the regulation of carbon emissions only in areas over which the federal government has constitutionally authorized exclusive jurisdiction. I will also urge all governments of the world to achieve zero carbon emissions (which are not offset) within fifteen years, and I will urge U.S. states to become unilateral signatories to the United Nations Kyoto Protocol on pollution.

For more entries on environment and climate change, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/09/proposal-for-cooperative-party-of-oregon.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/on-china-global-warming-and-population.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/social-policies-for-2012-us-house.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/environmental-policy.html

On China, Global Warming, and Population

Written November 18th, 2010

Most of the Republicans are completely out of touch with the mainstream of the reasonable American populace. I'll admit that I agree with them that there is not a scientific consensus on global warming, but going so far as to pull out the Bible to prove that God won't flood the world again? This is not science.

Whether mankind is affecting global carbon dioxide levels does not matter; arguing this point is a waste of time. It is politics and not governance; it distracts from doing what needs to be done. Who cares whether we sign the Kyoto Protocol? We can accomplish the same things without relinquishing any degree of our sovereignty. Why should we spend our time lobbying the government to impress the international community? What really matters is that we utilize government to compel those who pollute to compensate the people whose property they damage. Enforce contracts, keep people from hurting one another. That's the whole purpose of the government, nothing less, nothing more.

People who lead the Western lifestyle consume five times as much as the average human being. An American woman who does everything she can to reduce her carbon footprint still increases her impact on the environment nearly forty-fold simply by giving birth twice. Conservative Christian Republicans. Be fruitful and multiply my ass!

And these are the people who are bitching the most about how Communist China is going to own us within decades, some even going so far as to say we should cut off all trade with them. China, with its 1.3 billion citizens, passed the one-child-only policy. Highly populated countries like China are not the ones who need to reduce their populations the most.

Western civilizations like the United States and the European Union need to reduce their populations. The 300 million Americans consume about as much as the 1.3 billion Chinese.

Sure, a rapidly-industrializing nation like China, with its low environmental and consumer-safety standards, and its lack of concern for human, labor, and political rights, needs to be dealt with firmly, but what, are we going to impose sanctions on a fifth of the world's population, let them think we want to drag them into World War III just because of a few human rights violations?

Hell no! We're going to continue to borrow two-thirds of a trillion dollars from them every year until we can get our own population and industry under control, and transform ourselves into the economic and social good example for the rest of the world that we once were!

Mitt Romney has bigamists in his ancestry, and the Republican leadership is worried about losing jobs and industry to China. Give me a break.

For more entries on environment and climate change, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/09/proposal-for-cooperative-party-of-oregon.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/social-policies-for-2012-us-house.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/environmental-policy.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/cap-and-trade-legislation.html

For more entries on military, national defense, and foreign policy, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2010/10/american-sovereignty-restoration-act-of.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/01/iran-and-israel.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/03/911-heres-what-i-think-happened.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/03/middle-east-foreign-policy.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/04/local-inhabitants-per-deployed-us.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2012/03/defense-policy.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2012/07/seeds-of-world-war-iii-being-sown-in.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/09/response-to-andrew-klavans-video.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/sovereignty-and-secrecy-freedoms-of.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-second-amendment.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/on-zionism-and-state-of-israel.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/national-defense-authorization-act-for.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/02/geopolitics-images.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-syria-debate-in-congress.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/military-industrial-socialism-and.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/in-response-to-question-about-patriot.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/criticism-of-glenn-becks-libya-coverage.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/summary-of-webster-tarpleys-libya.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/barack-obama-universal-sycophant.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/notes-on-duplicity-in-us-foreign-policy.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/notes-on-conflict-in-syria.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/on-two-state-solution-in-israel-and.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/military-intervention.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/us-military-service-under-united.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/us-withdrawal-from-united-nations.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/foreign-occupation-and-declaration-of.html