The Copenhagen Climate Change Summit kicked off this weekend with 15,000 delegates and officials, 5,000 journalists and 98 world leaders expected to attend. Despite the ongoing “Climategate” investigation, another scandal is brewing in Copenhagen – the rank hypocrisy of leftwing elites. At a conference filled with the true believers of the gospel of global warming, one would think they would set an example by minimizing their “carbon footprint” as much as they can. But like members of the Soviet Politburo, living lives of luxury that their people could hardly imagine, many of these global warming advocates are doing the exact opposite of what they preach.

The managing director of the largest limousine firm in the Danish capital said she had more than 200 limousines booked on the opening day of the conference. On a normal day, she has 12 reservations. Between her company and others, she estimated that there will be more than 1,200 limousines on the road. How many of those limousines are powered by alternative fuels? Five.

The Copenhagen airport is also expecting 140 private jets during the peak time of the conference. The number is so great that the airport doesn’t have the capacity to hold all of them, so many are being re-directed to nearby cities. Including travel, the 11-day conference will use 41,000 tons of carbon dioxide — greater than the daily amount produced by 30 countries.

While the delegates in Denmark debate what steps we should take in response to the theory of global warming, reality in the United States is running contrary to the idea of warming. The central U.S. is bracing for its first blizzard of the year. The wind chill in the northern plains will reach 30-40 degrees below zero. In southern California, at the San Bernardino mountain range, up to 3 feet of snow is expected, and some areas set a new record low. Dallas, Texas, had its earliest snowfall in 90 years, and Houston experienced its earliest snow fall on record.

Why It Matters

In case you’re wondering why all the hot air about the weather should matter to you, here’s the bottom line: If the bureaucrats get their way, their theory is going to cost you – and it’s going to cost a lot. Germany is often looked to as a model for the green economy. It has been at the vanguard of environmental regulation, and the Washington Post recently featured a story about “The High Price of Going Green” in Germany.

According to the Post report, “A kilowatt of electricity costs three times as much [in Germany] as it does in the United States, supercharged with high taxes to discourage use and to help fund renewable energy development. Meanwhile, a 50 percent ‘eco-tax’ has sent the price of gasoline soaring to $8 a gallon.”

The Left wants to follow that example here. The Obama Administration just announced that the EPA will declare carbon dioxide a “dangerous pollutant” that must be vigorously regulated. What economic sectors produce the largest amounts of carbon dioxide? According to the Wall Street Journal, “Electricity generation, transportation and industry represent the three largest sources of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions.” Get ready to pay three times as much for electricity, $8.00 a gallon for gasoline and watch even more jobs get shipped overseas to escape radical environmental regulations.

Friday evening, when most of you probably were just beginning to relax after a long week, your elected representatives in Washington were hard at work. I’d like to report that they were working hard for the good of the country, but I can’t say that. In fact, I believe very strongly that what the House did is very detrimental to the well-being of our nation.

Just after 7:15pm Friday, the House voted 219-to-212 to pass Barack Obama’s “cap and trade” bill. Cap and trade is another attempt by Big Government to manipulate the free market. Liberal politicians think that they know better than consumers and business owners, and they intend to force you to use products (alternative sources of energy) that are not economically viable. It’s another example of government picking winners and losers.

The losers under this bill are fossil fuels – coal, oil and natural gas. The winners are solar, wind and other alternative fuels, which you will end up subsidizing under this bill. To give you an idea of how inefficient and expensive the alternatives are, consider this analysis from the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Energy Policy and the Environment:

“There’s an unavoidable problem with renewable-energy technologies: From an economic standpoint, they’re big losers. …The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported in early 2008 that the government subsidizes solar energy at $24.34 per megawatt-hour (MWh) and wind power at $23.37 per MWh. Yet even with decades of these massive handouts, as well as numerous state-level mandates for utilities to use green power, wind and solar energy contribute less than 1% of our nation’s electricity.

“Compare the subsidies to renewables with those extended to natural gas (25 cents per MWh in subsidies), coal (44 cents), hydroelectricity (67 cents), and nuclear power ($1.59). These are the energy sources (along with oil, which undergirds transportation) that do the heavy lifting in our energy economy.

“The alternative technologies at the heart of Mr. Obama’s plan, relying on mandates and far greater handouts, will inevitably raise energy prices — and high power prices are job killers.”
Cap and trade has been described by Michigan Democrat John Dingell, who voted for the bill, as “a great big tax.” Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who opposes cap and trade, called it “a huge tax … and a fairly regressive one.” So, supporters and opponents agree: It is a big tax and likely one of the largest in American history since it will tax energy – the lifeblood of our economy.

For the record, 96% of the votes to pass this “great big,” “huge and regressive” energy tax came from Democrats, while 94% of Republicans voted against it. The debate now shifts to the Senate, where Democrats will have to come up with 60 votes to prevent a likely filibuster.

On the merits alone, the bill is a disaster. For example: America is the Saudi Arabia of coal, from which half of the nation’s electricity is produced. But 96% of House Democrats just voted to tax coal, making it costlier to use. That makes no sense in the middle of a deep recession and with the president is predicting double digit unemployment. But, then again, this is the same logic that would not let us drill for our own oil when gas was $4.00 a gallon.

But far worse was the abuse of power liberals used to ram through one of the largest tax increases in history. Every politician who voted for this bill is guilty of gross malfeasance because not one of them read it. Not only was the bill over 1,200 pages when the debate began, but a 300-page amendment was mysteriously added just hours before the vote. For that reason alone, every member of the House would have been justified in voting no, and more of them should have.

If conservatives had done that while trying to pass the largest tax cut in history, the media would have howled about dictatorial tactics and the demise of democracy. But, so far, the media have been silent on this abuse of power, and that is a scandal of its own.