* An unimpressed Wall Street Journal says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “former convictions” on human rights in China “have fallen to the new liberal imperative of saving the world from carbon” … but “At least she’s honest about what her climate project would really mean state-side. Most Democrats have a kind of global-warming split personality: On the one hand, New York will be underwater unless we create millions of new green jobs by imposing a cap-and-trade tax. Yet they also ridicule anyone who points out that their carbon limits will result in huge new taxes and costs for people who use electricity, drive cars, buy groceries — which is say, everyone.”

    * Would GM’s Bankruptcy Derail the Chevy Volt?

    * U.N.’s ‘Global Warming=300,000 Deaths a Year’ Report – Kofi Annan implies: “close enough for government work”

    * More unfortunate focus on farts

    * Not-very-nimble thinking from the far left: “No matter the cause, we are faced with a major crisis or even series of crises as a result of the warming we’re undergoing at the moment.”

    * Can’t stop coal plants, but clean tech viable, energy CEOs declare

    * “Domestic cap and trade legislation making its way through the US House of Representatives could cost US airlines roughly $5 billion in 2012 and $10 billion in 2020.”

    * … but meanwhile, for all that money flushed away in cap-and-trade, Brookings says “on balance the innovation investments in the bill remain far too small”

    * France fears climate change will result in tourism drop

    * Watts Up With That?: “It took over a hundred years t create our current energy infrastructure, anyone who believes we can completely rebuild it with the current crop of renewable energy technologies is not realistic.”

 

 

In a great piece, Lauren Steffy points out:

 

    “cap-and-trade is marinated in political favoritism, steeped with biases against certain industries and skewed against certain regions of the country.

 

    “In its budget proposal, the Obama administration slotted $650 billion in new revenue from cap-and-trade between 2012 and 2019, with $80 billion a year used to fund a middle-class tax cut and $15 billion going to promote alternative energy.

 

    “The closer we get to cap-and-trade becoming law, the more its true picture comes into focus.

 

    “It’s been portrayed as a free market solution, but with all the manipulation before the first permit has even traded, it doesn’t resemble anything close to a market.

 

    “And it darn sure won’t be free.”

 

 

What do legalizing marijuana, stripper taxes, hotel-movie rental taxes, and eliminating state organ-donor tax deductions have in common? Apparently they’re revenue-generating notions by politicians across America. But John Rafuse says there’s a better way:

 

    Legislators need not nibble around the edges to generate revenue for their states. They can simply grant U.S. energy companies access to the vast oil and natural gas reserves off our shores, thereby generating $2.3 trillion in new tax revenue for federal, state, and local governments while also creating 1.2 million new, well-paying jobs and providing a shot in the arm for our slumping economy.

 

A timely reminder, even as much attention is directed to the pressing concerns of cap-and-trade legislation.

 

 

Drudge offers this picture to go with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s claim that every aspect of our lives must be subject to an eco-inventory: