So we went to see Bill McKibben last night, and as expected, much
gauzy talk about the virtues of Toyota Prions & other 1/10 measures
wrt to the CO2 problem.
But it felt like a revival, I tell ya!
McKibben's main theme was to develop a movement that, in addition to
screwing in a new light bulb, "screws in a new Senator." All well &
good, but I fear it will be just new pols who talk a good talk about
Global Warming, but won't have the first clue as to how to actually
get us there. Local examples abound such as Madison's state
delegation being all hot to trot on Global Warming legislation while
cutting funds for actual solutions. Transit, bikes & ped funds all
got cut (when accounting for inflation) in the last budget cycle.
There is not one Madison pol who went to bat for these green
transportation options. While cutting transit for tens of thousands
of bus riding Madisonians, my state senator worked his ass off to get
a $40,000,000 expressway project for the Village of DeForest,
population 7,000 (sa-alute!).
Then there is the example of our green mayor strangling transit
throughout his tenure while ramping up highway expansions out every
cowpath. (Oh, but he got a warm welcome by the assembled enviros!)
NYC Mayor Bloomberg--that's *Republican* Mayor Bloomberg--is light
years ahead of McKibben and every liberal pol on this one:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/bloomberg-calls-for-tax-on-carbon-emissions/
It really is simple. Just tax the carbon high enough that people
respond by burning less. No response? Charge more. Keep ratcheting it
up til people get the message, or, run out of money to burn more.
That'll learn 'em!
There is one niggling problem though; he sees the CO2 tax as forcing
a shift over to natural gas. Maybe. But that will last all of about,
oh, five years (or less) before that becomes cost prohibitive (a good
thing, btw). Again, that is niggling because the price factor will
just force the 3 E's anyway: Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency. The
big bonus: Efficiency. An added bonus: We'll be forced to consume
less. And be more efficient. Ahem.
Yes, yes, I hear the cries of the concerned: 'What about the poor?!'
Bloomberg addresses this by proposing that the carbon tax be
revenue-neutral: "'green taxes'...would be offset by reductions in
other taxes," specifically, "to use the revenue from pollution
pricing to cut the payroll tax." That is, create jobs!
I think it is disgusting that a Republican money man is so far out
ahead of the "good" liberal politicians & public intellectuals like
McKibben. Ugh.
Of course, I'll never forgive Bloomberg for stomping on the 1st
Amendment and *the* killer app/solution to the Global Warming
problem--bicycling--back in Aught 4 during the Republican Nat'l
Convention....So yeah, once we've been priced out of our cars and
wisely start riding our bikes we'll be caught in the maw of his
anti-bike brown-shirts. Hmmm.
Caught between a Toyota Prion-driving liberal and a baton-wielding,
ahem, authoritarian,
Mike
_______________________________________________
Bikies mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
