Our View: Brown's overheated climate rhetoric - Appeal-Democrat

August 22, 2012 11:44:42 PM

It's probably no coincidence that Gov. Jerry Brown recently launched a website to scare Californians into embracing his global-warming hype. The state is about to launch a cap-and-trade scheme that potentially will raise billions of dollars for the government, ostensibly to fight global warming.

In reality, the money is likely to be diverted to more mundane political uses â€" like backfilling the huge budget hole perpetuated by Brown and the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

If Brown were more honest, he would acknowledge that his intention isn't to curb global warming, which we and many scientists maintain is a highly disputable threat. If he were straightforward, Brown would explain to Californians that his cap-and-trade penalties on large industrial emitters of greenhouse gases are nothing but a disguised tax to raise billions to finance already overblown government operations.

The governor's new website, a propaganda tool at taxpayer expense to refute critics of global warming alarmism, is called "Climate Change, Just the Facts." You can find it here: www.climatechange.ca.gov.

You can find contrary views at the Climate Depot (climatedepot.com) and Watts Up With That (wattsupwith that.com.)

Both sites link to countless others that take views contrary to Brown's.

What you won't find on Brown's government website is an even-handed treatment.

The governor invokes the demagogic claim that, "we need to end the climate change debate and focus on how to solve the problem."

Pesky debates and their incessant habit of raising questions and offering contrary facts are anathema to Brown's agenda, which is to push ahead with Draconian government regulations and revenue-raising schemes such as cap-and-trade authorized by Assembly Bill 32, the 2006 law known as the Global Warming Solutions Act.

California will begin auctions in November, which will set in motion a government-created, faux marketplace where emitters of greenhouse gases can buy permits to emit.

The scheme is projected by Brown to raise as much as $1 billion in its first year. It also will result in dramatically higher energy costs to industry and consumers, have a dampening effect on the economy and probably induce more companies and residents to relocate out of state.

But in the short-term, Brown will add to government coffers, which could be described as the theme of his administration.

The governor also wants voters to raise income taxes on high earners and OK a quarter-cent increase in the sale tax.

We don't know whether the governor believes his global warming hype, as misguided as we and others believe it to be. But we are certain the governor believes in extracting as much money in taxes, fees and by other means from the private sector to feed the government spending machine.