Yes Men faux Post tells it like it is
September 23rd, 2009
[This from Grist]:
The “culture jamming†prankster troupe The Yes Men contributed to the Climate Week excitement in New York City this morning by distributing fake copies of the New York Post. The illicit special edition of the tabloid warned that climate change could unleash heat waves, flooding, and other disasters over the next decades.
The fake paper (also online) contains actual non-fake information, the group says:
Although the 32-page New York Post is a fake, everything in it is 100% true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and climate change experts.
“This could be, and should be, a real New York Post,†said Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men. “Climate change is the biggest threat civilization has ever faced, and it should be in the headlines of every paper, every day until we solve the problem.
[This sample from "The Post"]:
Crap and Trade
Posted By Staff Writer On September 21, 2009 @ 10:07 am In US News
Cap and trade. It sounds like a kind of street hustle. And in its way it is. But the street is Wall Street and the hustle is designed to collect a lot more than nickels and dimes from gullible passersby.
Cap-and-trade sets limits for a company’s carbon emissions. If it does not reach its limits a company can sell its spare capacity to other companies that have exceeded theirs. In other words, it creates a market in greenhouse gases.
Cap and trade is a highly profitable arrangement for large corporations. That’s why companies like  Shell, BP and Dupont are so keen on it. And that’s why the pressure on Congress to make it a central part of The American Clean Energy and Security Act (aka Waxman-Markey) is so intense.
The next market bubble…filled with CO2? (graphic source: Washington Post)You might think that with  the recent high-tech, housing and financial bubbles, the last thing we need is another arena in which speculators can make off like Bernie Madoff.  If so, you are not alone. Many are coming to doubt the wisdom of the cap and trade system. Maggie  Zhou of the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities  is one of them: “The lack of transparency coupled with the extreme requirements for oversight of any cap-and-trade system makes it highly vulnerable to the same manipulations that lead to the recent market crash,†she says.
And the problem’s not just one of speculation. There are serious concerns that  cap and trade could expand the emissions it’s supposed to control. Zhou again: “Rather than incentivizing the reduction of carbon emissions, the market-based incentives inherent to cap-and-trade actually ensure that all possible carbon allowances get used by someone. It creates financial assets out of the right to pollute.â€
Many of the allowances in carbon emissions are given to existing polluters for free. This can create windfall profits. Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, testified about them before Congress. He said that the allowances “would represent the largest corporate welfare program that has ever been enacted in the history of the United States.â€
Even worse, the annual allowance of offset credits that will be made available for purchase by US corporations is more than seven-times greater than the global allowances outlined in the Kyoto Protocol. Prominent climate scientist James Hansen says that passing cap-and-trade legislation is “Worse than doing nothingâ€.
In the face of this avalanche of criticism, a number of nations that instituted cap and trade are now turning towards more straightforward regulation or pollution taxes. Maggie Zhou recommends a framework where “a tax is levied on carbon producing and fossil-fuel extractive industries and activities, and dividends from this tax are then distributed equally to all consumers.â€
The Canadian province of British Columbia recently implemented such a system; France is in the process of transitioning towards one; and Scandinavia has been imposing stiff carbon taxes for nearly two decades. Even the non-partisan US Congressional Budget Office considers a carbon tax to be a superior option to cap and trade.
Maybe it’s  time to call Waxman Markey for the avoiding-the-taxman-malarkey it so obviously is.
Article printed from New York Post: http://nypost-se.com
URL to article: http://nypost-se.com/news/us_news/crap-and-trade/
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Waxman-Markey is just that, a tax, a tax that the American people can not afford. It will raise prices from everything from energy to food. On top of raising prices, it will also kill jobs. Write to Congress to voice opposition to this tax scheme at http://tiny.cc/pxIgi.