By Alan Caruba

Just how crazed is the Environmental Protection Agency? When I say “crazed”, I mean just how far out of touch with reality, with science, with the economy, with common sense, and with the American people is the EPA?

Ever since the Supreme Court made one of the greatest blunders since the Dred Scott case, declaring carbon dioxide (CO2) a “pollutant” that could be regulated by the EPA, that deranged agency has been pushing a tax on CO2 emissions from cows, pigs, and other farm animals on which we depend for milk and meat at the local supermarket.

According to Encarta, in 2005 there were an estimated 95,848,000 cows in the United States. Presumably, there are comparable numbers of pigs, goats, and other critters that emit belches and farts sufficient to destroy the Earth with the CO2 they emit. Nor should we overlook the six pounds of CO2 that the 307 million Americans exhale daily.

Since there is NO global warming and the Earth has been cooling for the past decade, the proposal that these farm animals be taxed constitutes a criminal act, devoid of any justification.

Since CO2 plays virtually no role whatever in so-called “climate change”, taxing farm animals is a violation of the known science and an assault on the economy in the name of the greatest hoax of the modern age.

It is not, however, a matter of “saving the Earth” so far as the EPA and the rest of the Obama administration is concerned. It is MONEY. And money is POWER.

The proposal, floated in late 2008, would impose a per-cow tax on any farm or ranch with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs that would require a payment of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle, and $20 for each hog.

Suffice it to say that dairy farmers across the U.S. are being forced to send many of their herd to the slaughter house because the price of milk has fallen to the point where it is unprofitable to maintain them. Owners of even a modest-sized cattle ranch would face additional costs of $30,000 to $40,000 a year. Add a tax on cows and you end up with a nation that has to import more milk than oil.

Taxing farm animals is a great way to bankrupt dairy farmers and cattle ranchers, along with all those who raise hogs. After that, it is only a matter of time before Americans would all have to become vegetarians because the cost of meat would put an end to that part of our diet.

As bizarre as the EPA proposal is, the effort by the Democrat-controlled Congress to impose a Cap-and-Trade bill on the nation in the name of reducing CO2 emissions dwarfs the farm and ranch proposal.

The Heritage Foundation has crunched the numbers on Cap-and-Trade concluding that job losses would exceed 800,000 annually for several years. Durable-manufacturing employment would decrease by 28 percent. Machinery-manufacturing job losses would exceed 57 percent. The same would hold true for textile-mills, electrical equipment and appliance manufacturers, paper and paper product jobs, and jobs involving plastic and rubber products.

Cap-and-Trade isn’t just a job-killer, American Solutions estimates that it would increase gasoline prices by 74 percent, electricity rates by 90 percent, natural gas prices by 55 percent, and add $1,600 a year to the cost of living of a typical household. The result would be to make the Great Depression look like a day at the park, but minus the hot dogs and ice cream.

This is what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have planned and they want the bill passed before Congress goes home for its summer recess. At that point, the destruction of the U.S. economy would be complete and there would be no reason for Congress to return. Does this seem an extreme conclusion to you? No, it is the reality the nation faces. See more here.

Christian News Analysis

‘At what point do we jail or execute global warming deniers’ - ‘’Shouldn’t we start punishing them now?’ By Marc Morano

The appeal appeared on Talking Points Memo, an often cited website that helps set the agenda for the political Left in the U.S. The Talking Points Memo appeal to execute skeptics is not unique. As the science behind man-made global warming fears utterly collapses, many of the biggest promoters of the theory and environmental activists are growing increasingly desperate.  Read entire article.

Threats, innuendo’s, name calling? The signs of those afraid of open discourse.

Let’s say that global warming is not the mass delusion or the scam I suspect it is. Let’s say for the sake of argument that human beings are destroying the planet and we are all doomed unless we turn over our lives to our “Green Masters,” along with our national sovereignty, freedoms, economy, and car keys. Then what?

Will China, India, and Russia - the other world’s main polluters - decide to play along and go “green?” Not likely! They will continue to blow soot out of their factories and keep their economies going. We are chumps if we fall for this scam.

Tiananmen Square in the smog

So do we do nothing? Of course not. But we don’t overreact either. Cutting back on pollution and waste is always a good idea. Destroying what’s left of our economy by implementing over-the-top laws and regulations based on flawed science will be a disaster for America.

Ever notice how the ringleaders of this group always seem to leave the biggest carbon footprint and rake in the most coin? Maybe they should lead by example before telling the rest of us what to do.

See blog here.

BBC News, 8 June 2009

The UK Independence Party has finished second in the European elections, ahead of Labour, on an impressive night for the Eurosceptic party. It performed strongly in the East of England, where it won two seats and its total vote went up, and also picked up seats in Yorkshire and London.

It gained 17.4% of the vote and increased its number of MEPs to 13, one more than it achieved in 2004. Its leader Nigel Farage said the result showed its 2004 outcome was “no fluke”. And he claimed the party would have gained even more votes if it had been allowed to properly debate the European issue, rather than MPs expenses, which dominated the campaign. Read more here. Read also “Voters steer Europe to the right - Centre-right parties have done well in elections to the European Parliament at the expense of the left. Far-right and anti-immigrant parties also made gains” here.

The Price of Climate Hype: Labour’s Self-Destruction
By Sonja A Boehmer-Christiansen

Dear Benny (Benny Peiser, CCNet)

Re your argument (CCNet, 6 June 2009) that: “Green policies are gradually pricing the working and lower-middle classes out of their comfort zone. Labour parties may sincerely believe that their utopian low-carbon plans will save the planet. But in the process they are destroying the very foundations of their political support and movement.”

I agree, but this belief is surely equally held almost everywhere in EU, by all other main parties. They compete over ‘who is the greenest in the land’? Any sign that this is changing? I can’t see it in UK.

Sonja

Benny Peiser’s Response: Sonja - yes, most mainstream parties in the EU and the UK have been riding the climate bandwagon for years. But Labour and centre-left parties are particularly vulnerable to the current backlash as their voters suffer most from costly green policies. All over Europe, the centre-left has been haemorrhaging core voters. The fact that UKIP, an openly climate sceptical party, has beaten Labour into third place in the EU elections is a clear signal. It suggests that any party promoting unpopular climate policies and green taxes that will further increase the cost of energy, transport and travel for ordinary families risks being punished in future elections.

As far as Britain is concerned, the Labour government and its green agenda is finished. Let that be a warning to President Obama and other would-be salvationists. Britain’s next government will have to carefully reassess all green and climate policies that pose a heavy burden on millions of struggling families and businesses. Otherwise, it will face the same popular revolt that is now bringing down the Brown government. BJP

See in this Reuter’s story
a strong showing by pro-industry Conservatives in elections to the European Parliament could make it hard for Green parties to capitalise on their own gains.