Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Heads UP – Pay Attention


The QandO reacts to Kimberly Strassel’s Opinion Journal column last Friday on the deceitfully titled Energy Bill coming up in Congress. I agree completely.

Global Warming and your property: There is an imminent and building threat to your private property. No, that's not the way to state it. There is an imminent and growing threat to all private property. And it is to be found in the Democratic Party as it continues its steady march to the extreme left.

The environmentalists desire complete overarching political control of every inch of land and every living thing. They won’t get everything they desire immediately, but unless their "Save the Planet" propaganda is exposed and refuted, the incremental and detrimental erosion of our classic liberties will continue. Kimberly Strassel explains the potential of the drafted legislation.

Green Goodies: Broadly, the bill fulfills one big ambition of environmental groups in recent years: a rollback of any smarter use of public (or even private) lands for energy use. Gone are previous gains for more drilling, more refineries, more transmission lines. But the big prize was an unprecedented new power allowing green groups to micromanage U.S. lands. That section creates "a new national policy on wildlife and global warming." It would require the Secretary of the Interior to "assist" species in adapting to global warming, as well as "protect, acquire and restore habitat" that is "vulnerable" to climate change. This is the Endangered Species Act on steroids. At least under today's (albeit dysfunctional) species act, outside groups must provide evidence a species is dwindling in order for the government to step in. This law would have no such requirements. Since green groups will argue that every species is vulnerable to climate change, the government will be obliged to manage every acre containing a bird, bee or flower.

It's a green dream come true, carte blanche to promulgate endless regulations barring tree-cutting, house-building, water-damming, snowmobile-riding, waterskiing, garden-planting, or any other human activity. The section is vague ("protect," "assist," "restore") precisely so as to leave the door open to practically anything. In theory, your friendly Fish & Wildlife representative could even command you to start applying sunblock to your resident chipmunks' noses.

The environment is fine. The Earth does not need saving. The biosphere is ever changing and adapts quite well. Nature does not require human maintenance to thrive. Believe it.