And ... here comes the kitchen sink

by: Eric B.

Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 13:22:31 PM EDT

Who is Kenneth W. Chilton?  Some guy from Missouri. So, why did the Detroit News give him space on its Op-Ed page? I think we have the answer here.

For the past two years, Congress has been considering legislation to address global warming. The latest version, the Waxman-Markey climate bill, has been approved by the House and seems dangerously close to being enacted into law. For American families struggling to keep their heads above water, the cure will be worse than the disease.

This push to impose what is, in essence, an energy tax is out-of-step with the views of the American people. Congress appears to be convinced that predictions from computer models of high levels of global warming 50 to 100 years in the future are unquestionably accurate. But the latest Gallup poll on global warming finds that 41 percent of Americans now believe that global warming is "generally exaggerated." Thirty 30 percent said they thought that future warming was exaggerated as recently as 2006.

In other words, the News went out and found someone not because they could bring unique and informed perspectives to the table, but because they push an agenda the News has been pushing for years.  Note the quality of argumentation ... why model future global temperatures when such things are apparently subject to the rigors of Gallup polls? He also cherry picks economic impact data, which is to say that he skips data from real reliable sources that predict a very modest impact on most families from Waxman-Markey, and goes straight to the Heritage Foundation, which doesn't think global warming is a problem to begin with.

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A Heritage Foundation analysis finds that Waxman-Markey would, by 2035, raise electricity rates 90 percent, gasoline prices 74 percent, residential natural gas prices 55 percent and an average family's monthly energy bill by more than $100.

Not only does this differ from basically every responsible objective analysis of the data, but it also ignores provisions in the bill that would take some revenue generated through this bill and disburse it to regions where ratepayers are apt to be most heavily impacted by this bill.  That is, Michigan families may see an increase in utility bills, thanks in large part to a state government that failed to interpret clear signs that something is amiss with the way we generate energy, but they will get relief to mitigate those cost increases from the federal government. You may object to such a thing on any number of grounds, I suppose, but at the end of the day they do exist to address the potential increase in household utility rates.

Such things, suggesting that Gallup poll results are a better indicator of how much temperatures will rise in the next decade than computer models designed by climate experts, could be expected from a guy representing an organization that published a document containing this curious statement:

Some unfounded or undue concerns include fears of destructive manmade global warming, overpopulation, and rampant species loss.

The gist of the document -- and readers may not be surprised to learn that the signatories for the thing include James Dobson and "Dr." James Kennedy -- is that the world should be more concerned with the impoverished today rather than dealing with environmental problems that could kill billions of them tomorrow.  It's a very soft way of saying, "Global warming?  Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

It's either an incredibly disingenuous approach to the issue or downright deceiptful, depending on what approach you take to it. The concern here isn't for the economic impacts of this particular legislation on poor American families, but in attempting to stop action on a problem they don't believe is real -- for reasons assumed to be entirely religious in nature -- by any means necessary.

We expect such things from our politicians. We also expect them from various major religious figures whose ministries most thinking persons suspect are more in the service of Mammon that God. We should be able to expect better from our newspapers.