Heartland VP: ‘Yankee taxes’ on global warming will lead to ‘another Civil War.’

[marmar]

from ThinkProgress:



Heartland VP: ‘Yankee taxes’ on global warming will lead to ‘another Civil War.’»

Last Friday, Alexandra Liddy Bourne, Vice President for Policy and Strategy at the global warming denier group Heartland Institute, spoke to the Heritage Foundation. She warned that state-led climate legislation unfairly burdened the South and would lead to “another Civil War here in a short period of time”:

So yet again, the South has to pay on its back the cost of using coal in this country to the northern states. We’re going to have another Civil War here in a short period of time, because the cost is going to go up. So the Southeast has not bought into this because they understand that they’re going to have to pay a very high price. Maryland has decided to sort of stay out of it because they have coal, as is Pennsylvania. They don’t necessarily want to pay Yankee taxes, right?

Watch it: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/15/heartland-vp-yankee-taxes-on-global-warming-will-lead-to-another-civil-war/

[phantom power]

1. Heh. Heartland Institute and Heritage Foundation....

talk about a circle jerk.

[melody]

2. Or a Jerk Circle n/t

[Viking12]

3. What about state's rights and all that.....???

The northern states don't use coal? WTF?

[kristopher]

4. This is an important argument in many senses

Environmental justice concerns have to balance the costs to the losers in policy decisions.

Is there a solution that you might recommend? Any federal program is going to run into the problem and is going to have to address it. Can wind and solar work? Offshore wind in the SE is hampered by the frequency of hurricane forces that frequently exceed wind speeds insurers are willing to underwrite. So, with time that is probably an obstacle that can be overcome.

Improved transmission will be required. Wave is probably a good option, along with solar, geothermal, and yes, perhaps nuclear. Florida has a huge resource in the Gulf Stream as it passes between Florida and the Bahamas; and technology based on what we've learned from wind turbines is very close to being ready to deploy.

The biggest thing that we can do though, in my opinion, is gather stronger evidence on climate change. I think the more the scope of the problem becomes a reality, the more the losers in a new energy distribution system are going to be willing to sacrifice for their descendants.

I know every one here is convinced, but that same conviction has to be shared by more people. And the only route I see to that end is through a scientific community that is able to respond to criticisms with concrete predictions of the consequences of inaction. So far, there is (IMO) far too much ambiguity in the carefully couched academic speak for many laypeople.

So while that process is going on, how do we deal with a coal-dependent southeast and still make progress?

[NickB79]

5. "Biggest thing that we can do though, in my opinion, is gather stronger evidence on climate change"

:banghead:

You know what's really strong evidence on climate change? When the fucking Arctic ice pack collapses and coastal cities are underwater after Greenland's glaciers slide into the sea. But of course, by then it will be too late to save the hundreds of millions of lives that will be lost. But at least we kept gathering more and more evidence long after the vast majority of climatologists agreed humans were causing global warming.

[hatrack]

6. Yes, by all means, another 30 or 40 years of studies - just what the doctor ordered!!!

:eyes: