Audiophile note: "Money For Nothing" is a great Dire Straits song, from their 1985 album "Brothers In Arms", the first compact disc I bought, out of about 2,000 I own now. The song is also on their greatest hits album, titled "Money For Nothing", but "Brothers In Arms" is a better album, and should be in the collection of every rock and roll fan. I listened to it before coming up with the title of this article.
If the Democrat Party continues to control the House, gains control of the Senate, majority votes to end the Senate filibuster rule, and Joe Biden becomes president, this is what to expect. Hold on, after writing that sentence I'm not feeling well -- No libertarian, like me, wants a single party in control of the federal government.
Last month Senate Democrats released their climate plan, that they say will cost $400 billion per year. Politicians are notorious for under estimating costs, but I'll stick with the $400 billion for this article. There are about 120 million households in America. $400 billion / 120 million = $3,333 per year ,or about $278 per month for the average household EVERY YEAR !
Higher taxes on gasoline and electricity too, so we will use less.
Global man made emissions of greenhouse gases are about 56 billion tons per year. The US share of that is approximately 7.5 billion tons – only 13% of total global emissions. A percentage that continues to shrink as Asia and Africa develop. If the US stopped emitting all CO2 today, from now on, atmospheric CO2 would only be reduced from roughly 545 parts per million (ppm) vs. 529 ppm by 2100. Not a meaningful difference.
No measurable change in the global climate. No change in the local weather. Higher energy prices and less money to spend, due to higher taxes. What a deal !
A recent Harris poll placed climate as one of the lowest priorities for American adults -- 23rd out of 24, to be exact. A year ago, the Washington Post and Kaiser Foundation did a climate poll tasking people if they were willing to pay $2 more per month on their electric bill for climate change. 51% of respondents said ‘No.’
And 71% said 'No" to paying $10 more per month on their electric bill for climate change.
I would expect people to be "more generous" in a survey because its not real money being paid from their checking account. So even with the potential bias of people making themselves sound generous on a survey, the support for "fighting" climate change is a mile wide, and one inch deep. I'd bet that almost all the respondents had assumed the U.S. could "fight" climate change, and the US was a big contributor to global climate change.
Democrats don’t usually discuss the details of their climate plans, so I'll have to stop here.