From the parallel universe of Robert Novak. “Environmentalists’ well-financed propaganda operation”…Does the man live in this universe? Industry has been spending many times the amounts the environmentalists have but the truth is still coming thru their lies and distortions. Industry has controlled the conversation for 12 years in congress and now that their lapdogs have been turned out they should be worried. My worry is that the Democrats will not go far enough to turn back the damage caused by the past six  years of Bush’s manifest destiny.

“I’ve never seen industry so deathly afraid of the current politics surrounding climate change policy,” a Bush administration environmental official told me. With good reason. As Democrats take control of Congress, once-firm opposition to the green lobby’s campaign of imposing carbon emission controls is weak.

Panicky captains of industry have themselves largely to blame for failing to respond to the environmentalists’ well-financed propaganda operation. One government official says “industry appears utterly helpless and utterly clueless as to how to respond.” But the Bush administration itself is a house divided with support for greens and severe carbon regulation inside the Energy Department, reaching up to the secretary himself.

I have to wonder about how lucky we really are when the best news Mr Novak could come up with is that no matter what we do, China is set to blow right past our emissions levels. Damn, don’t you feel good?

Ultimate salvation from U.S. self-destructive behavior may come from the real world. Most European Union countries, suffering higher energy costs and constraints on growth imposed by the Kyoto pact, cannot meet that treaty’s requirements for emission levels. Furthermore, China is on pace to exceed U.S. emissions by 2010, meaning that unilateral U.S. carbon controls will have little impact on global emissions while driving American jobs to China.

And why does our joining a treaty we helped push and write after being one of the few industrialized nations to fight it when the Bush regime took office, become a unilateral position?

Source: Robert D. Novak – Losing to the Greens – washingtonpost.com