The Green Police State Cometh

Although it may sound like a far-fetched science fiction plot, can a Green Police State USA be in your future?

Surprise! It already is. Earthfirst made the catch back in March when it reported from a New York Times article about New York State’s “eco-police officers” — often known in rural America as “fish and game cops” — that are now part of the State Department of Environmental Conservation.

They are dressed in olive green uniforms and sport Stetson hats, which send the message “friendly Smokey Bear.” These police officers target “drivers of smoke-bellowing trucks, owners of oil-oozing body shops, vendors of undersize fish and other city dwellers underestimate him at their peril.”

As a member of a small force of police officers whose sole focus is enforcing environmental laws, Officer Stevens carries a gun and handcuffs and can haul a suspect off to jail. These environmental conservation officers number barely 20 in New York City, out of about 300 around the state, but issue about 2,000 summonses for violations and criminal charges annually.

And another prime target are recyclable bottles and cans. When one eco cop found a New York City supermarket’s “return machines for recyclables locked and was turned away by a store employee,” the uniformed officer “walked in and handed the store manager a summons.”

How, you ask, did the eco cop know to check out that particular store at that particular time? Well, an informant, of course, called the city’s help line.

You can be sure this is only the tip of the iceberg compared to all the myriad of possible violations eco cops will be called upon to investigate — and penalize.

ACES: Cap and Trade Theory

Haley Paul wrote July 6 at Earth911.com of the American Clean Energy and Security Act:

[Cap and Trade] will form the basic structure if the landmark legislation is passed. In essence, the cap-and-trade system will distribute permits to pollute—at no cost initially—to any company that emits carbon dioxide (the cap).

Because the cap, or upper limit, of carbon dioxide emissions is to decrease with time, this spurs companies to reduce their carbon emissions. If a company has leftover permits to pollute that they are not using, they can then sell them to other companies (the trade).

To meet the regulations of the cap-and-trade system, reducing carbon emissions by utilizing alternative forms of energy such as wind, solar and geothermal will be a must.

UK CO2 Cops Coming Soon

CO2 cops will soon become reality in the UK, as Jonathan Leake reported yesterday in the London Sunday Times, the “boys in green are coming as the Environment Agency sets up a squad to police companies generating excessive CO2 emissions.”

Leake wrote:

The agency is creating a unit of about 50 auditors and inspectors, complete with warrant cards and the power to search company premises to enforce the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), which comes into effect next year.

Decked out in green jackets, the enforcers will be able to demand access to company property, view power meters, call up electricity and gas bills and examine carbon-trading records for an estimated 6,000 British businesses. Ed Mitchell, head of business performance and regulation at the Environment Agency, said the squad would help to bring emissions under control. “Climate change and CO2 are the world’s biggest issues right now. The Carbon Reduction Commitment is one of the ways in which Britain is responding.”

The formation of the green police overcomes a psychological hurdle in the battle against climate change. Ministers have long recognised the need to have new categories of taxes and criminal offences for CO2 emissions, but fear a repetition of the fuel tax protests in 2000 when lorry drivers blockaded refineries.

The central unit, based in Warrington, Cheshire, can call on the agency’s national network of hundreds of pollution inspectors, many of whom will soon be trained in CO2 monitoring.

It will also be able to demand energy bills from utilities without the companies under investigation knowing they are being watched.

Perhaps most worrying, for managers will be the publication of an annual league table ranking companies by performance in cutting emissions. The government hopes the potential shame of a lowly placing will drive organisations to greater energy efficiency.

Mitchell predicted the unit would audit about 1,200 businesses a year. The first stage would be a desk study of their energy bills and activities, followed by a visit when numbers do not add up. “The inspectors will carry warrant cards giving them powers of entry to collect evidence. We will also have access to company accounts with suppliers,” he said.

American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) Based on Junk Science?

Glen Meakem, founder, chairman and CEO of FreeMarkets Inc., who also co-founded and is managing director of Meakem Becker Venture Capital in Pittsburgh, wrote July 5 in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

In recent years, Democratic Party leaders including Barack Obama have stated that they favor basing public policy on science, not ideology. In April, Obama said “the days of science taking a back seat to ideology are over. … To undermine scientific integrity is to undermine our democracy.”

Actually, the White House website states it was on March 9 that

[POTUS] signed an executive memorandum with a clear message: Under my administration, the days of science taking a back seat to ideology are over. Our progress as a nation – and our values as a nation – are rooted in free and open inquiry. To undermine scientific integrity is to undermine our democracy. It is contrary to our way of life.

That’s why I have charged John Holdren in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy with leading a new effort to ensure that federal policies are based on the best and most unbiased scientific information. I want to be sure that facts are driving scientific decisions – and not the other way around.

Note that the above is taken from the cache file. The original link arrives at a page that has been scrubbed of text although the heading remains.

Meakem continues:

But President Obama and the Democrats have little interest in scientific integrity regarding man-made global warming. The Democrats’ leadership last month rammed a 1,500-page “cap-and-trade” bill through the House. Democrats claim it will serve to reduce emissions of “greenhouse gases” — especially carbon dioxide (CO2) — which is said to cause global warming.

The Senate will consider the legislation this fall, where its future is not certain. But, if passed, it would cap and then reduce the overall amount of CO2 emitted by the American economy, requiring a 17 percent cut in emissions by 2020 and an 83 percent reduction by 2050.

Unfortunately, the proposed legislation is terrible for our economy. It justifies vast increases in government regulation and imposes a giant new tax on businesses that will be passed on to consumers through higher prices. President Obama himself said that every American’s energy bills would “necessarily skyrocket” if his plan becomes law. Studies estimate that the average American family would pay approximately $3,000 more each year for energy. The National Association of Manufacturers estimates the new law will eliminate 4 million American jobs.

If “cap and trade” becomes law, all of this economic pain will result in no environmental gain. Hard data don’t support the man-made global warming theory. Yes, real data from planet Earth indicates that global average temperatures have been falling since 1998. These data directly refute all of the “official” forecasts and computer models.

The real facts indicate that the Earth’s climate is and always has been changing regardless of CO2 levels and that, since 1998, it has returned to a cooling phase after a 25-year warming phase.

The most recent scientific work on climate indicates that solar activity beyond human control is and has always been a key driver of Earth’s climate; 700 scientists now publicly support this view. Recognizing the new facts, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are all taking steps to stop their efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.

It is time for President Obama and other Democrat leaders to be true to their words and put science ahead of ideology. The stakes are just too high to do otherwise. The “cap-and-trade” bill would cause severe damage to the American economy, hurting average American families.

Carbongate: An EPA Cover Up?

Final Word

Blogger Monique Stewart, in response to POTUS’s statement, responded April 27:

“The days of science taking a back seat to ideology are over?” Since when? Is science not taking a back seat to ideology when it comes to “climate change?” The last time I checked, there was plenty of science out there that doesn’t support the claims being made about climate change. There is plenty of science to suggest that the globe is not warming and, even if it is, it is not a man-made problem. Yet, this science takes a back seat to your ideology.

[...]

You want my opinion, President Obama? You hold science at the mercy of your ideological integrity while projecting this tendency on your opponents. Anyone who doesn’t agree with your agenda is “politicizing” the issue, putting ideology before science, or presenting the public with a “false choice.” You are the false choice, Mr. President, and I can’t wait for the majority of Americans to see that.

Amen.