Maryland gov proposes radical climate bill
posted at 11:49 am on February 20, 2008 by Bryan
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Elect a radical leftist governor, get radical leftist policy. The boy mayor who failed to reduce the murder rate in Baltimore now thinks he can reduce an entire state’s carbon emissions.
A proposal to address climate change by adopting the nation’s most ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gases went before Maryland lawmakers Tuesday.
The governor lent his backing to the bill, but industry and union officials warned that the plan could hurt the state while doing little to stop climate change.
The bill before lawmakers would require Maryland to slash emissions of carbon-based greenhouse gases 25% by 2020 and 90% by 2050. If adopted, the carbon reductions would be the nation’s steepest.
No state has attempted a 90% carbon reduction, but hardly anyone who will consider this bill now will be alive to see if the goal is met. They also won’t be around to see if the nonexistent technology that the reduction depends on is ever even invented.
Even administration officials behind the bill conceded that they don’t know whether it’s possible to achieve the 90% reduction without the invention of new technology. And they also told senators it would be better if the whole nation, or all nations, took similar measures.
“We’re hearing a lot of questions about whether these goals are realistic,” Environment Secretary Shari Wilson told senators. She concluded the 90% goal is “very realistic” because new technologies will be invented.
Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. But there’s one thing Maryland can count on: The curbs this bill would place on manufacturing in the state will drive jobs out of state to Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware.
Maybe that’s how Gov. O’Malley really plans to reduce carbon emissions: Just keep marching to the left until the state’s soaring tax rate and environmental policies drive all manufacturing somewhere else.
Update: Here’s an environmental policy to save the Chesapeake: Just add water (because the ice caps are growing again).
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90% reduction?
Here’s a real simple way how: reduce the population of Maryland by 90%. Presto chango!
How to accomplish that feat? Tax the beejebus out of everyone in Maryland, force businesses to leave the state, citizens to follow, etc., and pretty soon you too can claim to have reduced carbon emissions by 90%. After all, if you need to reduce emissions, start at the source (all those people and all the stuff they use).
lawhawk on February 20, 2008 at 11:52 AM
I can feel my state taxes rising as I type………..
Britcop on February 20, 2008 at 11:52 AM
That’s about the only way to do it. Then, all of those tree huggers will be happy. Sitting on their front porch, watching their organic vegetables grow. They wont have to worry about going to work anymore, cause there wont be any jobs there!
kcd on February 20, 2008 at 11:54 AM
Hey O’Malley, read this and weep.
Bigfoot on February 20, 2008 at 11:54 AM
What a moron…
CP on February 20, 2008 at 11:56 AM
Nostradamus has spoken.
Rogue Traveler on February 20, 2008 at 11:58 AM
It won’t be long till Blue Crabs flatulence becomes an environmental problem during molting season.
Let alone cops in clown cars with bumble bee outfits.
Kini on February 20, 2008 at 11:59 AM
If said radical leftist governor moved to another state, he would reduce Maryland’s carbon emissions by 90%.
thirteen28 on February 20, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Question: short of the possibility that everyone out there was either having a real bad day on Election Day, or were just not thinking clearly, or the other candidate was just a total loser, exactly why did the voters in Maryland put this doofus goof in the Governor’s Office in the first place?
pilamaye on February 20, 2008 at 12:01 PM
They wanted ‘change’.
Limerick on February 20, 2008 at 12:04 PM
The left continues to propose policies which affect dreamland, all the while sapping reality. Insanity.
Grafted on February 20, 2008 at 12:06 PM
Is that him in the photo? If so, isn’t there some kind of Pickler/Burnett rule for governors?
MayBee on February 20, 2008 at 12:10 PM
A state level Misery Index in the making.
Let’s elect Hussein and spread it nationally. /s
BowHuntingTexas on February 20, 2008 at 12:15 PM
NC has lost a lot of manufacturing jobs… we will gladly take theirs I’m sure.
BackseatDriver on February 20, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Dude. 90% reduction is easy.
Just plug in the ZedPM.
[/atlantis off]
y2church on February 20, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Reduce carbon emissions: STOP BREATHING!
profitsbeard on February 20, 2008 at 12:20 PM
The tech is already here, just start building nuke plants. Twenty might be a good start.
These lefties just aren’t serious about it unless it’s reusing bath water or using one square of TP.
Dusty on February 20, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Allright Allah…what’s with the gay male in the picture?
LtE126 on February 20, 2008 at 12:22 PM
They already tax the beejebus out of us.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on February 20, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Screw Maryland. I don’t care. I have my hands too full in the People’s Democratic Republic of Pennsylvania to give a hoot about the socialists to the south.
RWLA on February 20, 2008 at 12:23 PM
Double duty the bath water and you don’t even need that one square.
Limerick on February 20, 2008 at 12:23 PM
They’ll double it. And then double it again. Just remember, it’s for your own damned good. /as NJ Gov Jon Corzine has said
lawhawk on February 20, 2008 at 12:24 PM
O’Malley = Clinton 2.0
Notorious leftist, notorious womanizer.
He’s one of the reasons I left Maryland…
unamused on February 20, 2008 at 12:25 PM
You know, there are two other funny things about this:
1. Maryland’s a very small state. How do we keep Delaware’s and Pennsylvania’s and Virginia’s carbon emissions off our damn lawn?
2. By 2050, most of the legislators and probably the Gov will be dead. I certainly expect to be, myself. This plan will just be sticking it to our grandchildren.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on February 20, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Are handsome idiots still handsome? Think about it. Discuss.
Gartrip on February 20, 2008 at 12:26 PM
A few miles into PA doesn’t count. And Rendell’s no great shakes, either.
That said, we sure could use your vote.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on February 20, 2008 at 12:27 PM
I’m sure you’re right. Time for me to update Gov. O’Malley’s to-do list.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on February 20, 2008 at 12:30 PM
nice arms LOL
D2Boston on February 20, 2008 at 12:31 PM
reduce carbon on a planet where the most valuable gem is compressed carbon (diamond) and ALL life is carbon based. Seems to me carbon is natural.
kimsch on February 20, 2008 at 12:41 PM
What the heck was his campaign slogan? “And now for something completely different!” ?
pilamaye on February 20, 2008 at 12:44 PM
Is it just me or does it seem like this crap is a win win for the lefties. If they succeed in implementation and destroy the state economically, doesn’t that just necessitate MORE government intervention/subsidization?
They pander to the crazies and if it works the way they want they get the big nanny state govt. handouts that ensure it stays that way.
America1st on February 20, 2008 at 12:44 PM
I would be happy about this because all the industry he chases out of Maryland could come to Florida except we have a republican governor who himself is intent on destroying the economy of Florida.
peacenprosperity on February 20, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Rendell’s bought and paid for by Gamesa, the Spanish wind power giant, to whom he’s turned over the western highlands of Pennsylvania. Industrializing the scenic rural highlands is no skin off his teeth, as those districts vote Republican anyway.
Before he takes a senior position with Gamesa, Rendell hopes to get a cabinet appointment in the Hillary administration, hence the recent race-baiting cracks a la Bill’s Jesse Jackson comparison.
The primary effect of tax breaks, renewable portfolio standards, and other public subsidies to promote inefficient, unproductive and dead-ended technologies is to increase taxes, double or triple the cost of energy to consumers, and divert investment from more efficient, productive clean technologies to these less efficient ones.
petefrt on February 20, 2008 at 12:53 PM
And Hope! I hope they get the change they hoped for.
Oldnuke on February 20, 2008 at 12:54 PM
Gorebal Warming = the new Y2K
petefrt on February 20, 2008 at 12:55 PM
Hey Bryan, he’s brought it to Annapolis too! I guess murderers figured if they got away with it while he was mayor, they would while he was governor.
Ian on February 20, 2008 at 12:56 PM
I can just see the crops fail in Maryland for lack of carbon dioxide to ingest. I suggest the governor set the example by refusing to exhale.
NNtrancer on February 20, 2008 at 1:11 PM
Well that right there is what it is all about. Make me lord high god of the earth and I will insure that everything will be a paradise after we are all long dead. Yes you will suffer but just imagine that paradise that will follow. I don’t have a problem with someone with such goals. My problem lies with all the stupid people that believe and follow such people.
I’ve always advocated a very simple test. The global warmers set out a ten year plan. They make a prediction as to the climate in ten years time if their plan is followed. We follow their plan but and this is key, not a single one of them is allowed to benefit from it in any way what so ever. In ten years if at least 60 percent of what they say comes true we elevate them to great status and wealth and allow them their proper place in history and government. If it doesn’t come true we execute them. I’d be willing to bet very few if any of them would accept such a deal because they all know it’s a complete sham.
jmarcure on February 20, 2008 at 1:34 PM
90% reduction?
How ’bout we just have all the liberals hold their breath from breakfast to lunch? Tha t should do it!
oldleprechaun on February 20, 2008 at 2:10 PM
I assume Maryland is one of the last to find out, global warming has stopped, yes it has been cooling for the last 8-10 years. If the IPCC were to rewrite their last report, they culd not use the data they used before — it has been changed by the source NASA …
So if CO2 is the cause, what has happened and why do the computer models not agree with reality? Has anybody thought that maybe they should check the computer models against what is, before relying on them.
So sad science has become this political. Wasn’t it Stalin who first starting using science for political reasons?
Here is a link if you want the facts …
http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/january-2008-4-sources-say-globally-cooler-in-the-pas
tarpon on February 20, 2008 at 2:37 PM
I`m waiting for the day we`re told to limit how much we exhale, for the good of the planet.
ThePrez on February 20, 2008 at 3:07 PM
This bill is just bizarre and I’m an environmentalist open to the possibility that global warming is a possibility. Our power options are basically those that come from the sun (solar, gas, coal, peat, wood, cow dung, etc.), tidal, and nuclear. I doubt that we’ve managed to overlook anything at this state of our knowledge. It seems to me unlikely in the extreme that some new miracle source of energy is going to be found. (And given the lack of human wisdom, I only foresee disaster if it could be found.) Thus, there is simply no way that Maryland can realistically reduce greenhouse gases by 90% by 2050 without going completely to nuclear power, banning lawnmowers and such, and massive investment in public transport powered by the new nuclear power plants. This should be obvious to anyone who has taken high school physics and thinks about the issue for a while.
thuja on February 20, 2008 at 3:14 PM
Ha, I just got done watching a couple of epis of SGA, I needed that laugh… especially after reading this nonsense about MD. To think I was actually looking forward to moving back there in a few months.
the goddess anna on February 20, 2008 at 3:29 PM
Britcop on February 20, 2008 at 11:52 AM
Attila (Pillage Idiot)
We may be the
WraithRat on February 20, 2008 at 4:04 PM
These decisions are not based on scientific knowledge or rational thought, they are based on greed and politics.
AZCoyote on February 20, 2008 at 4:11 PM
Britcop on February 20, 2008 at 11:52 AM
Attila (Pillage Idiot)
We may be the only three conservatives left in the state – four, including my spouse. For the uninitiated, Dufus O’Malley raised our taxes this year, “just in case”. And if I’m not mistaken, y’all will be getting the opportunity to see more of him in the future. I believe that underneath his slime and the oily snakeskin, the man has presidential aspirations. (He thinks he’s pretty!)
We live in a blue wasteland of idiots here, who actually believe the government can do a better job of it, and therefore want the government to take care of them… I come most recently from California, and this place makes me shudder in horror at the lockstep mentality.
WraithRat on February 20, 2008 at 4:12 PM
Ah, yes. The Teflon Leprechaun strikes again.
nukemhill on February 20, 2008 at 4:28 PM
Though I’m not a Republican, and have a real mixed-bag of political beliefs, I voted for Erlich both times. Everyone knew, coming into this last round of elections, that Erlich was going to get smoked. His election in the first place was an aberration, as KKT was an appalling candidate for the Dems. A lot of blue voters had the common sense to vote for Erlich, even if just that once.
Nonetheless, I think Erlich deserved to be re-elected. He got royally shafted by the State Houses. They went out of their way to thwart his agenda, and even made public events of overriding his vetoes. It was really pathetic. Even my wife, who normally votes pretty blue, voted for Erlich, because she simply can’t stand O’Malley, and thought that Erlich did a pretty good job the first four years.
It’s a crying shame. On the plus side, we get to listen to Bob and Kendall every Saturday morning, completely ripping O’Malley to shreds on his latest idiocies!
nukemhill on February 20, 2008 at 4:35 PM
Five, including my wife, and I’ve got relatives running around here somewhere. We may be able to fill a small conference room.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on February 20, 2008 at 4:48 PM
What has become of my home state? UGH.
This bozo has to be a one term governor or the state of Maryland may never recover from the damage he’ll cause. What’s funny (in the weird way, no, make that the really weird way) is that you can’t find a soul that admits to voting for MOM, yet he’s in power. Seems lots of Maryland’s libs are moving to Pa. after voting this buffoon into office because he wasn’t an R. Too bad, because the R was actually a good leader.
BobUSMC on February 20, 2008 at 5:38 PM
I absolutely agree.
nukemhill on February 20, 2008 at 6:22 PM
Let Maryland have their socialist governor. Michael Steele will be free to be Vice President under President McCain.
jgapinoy on February 20, 2008 at 9:52 PM
No matter what they do, they can’t make Maryland habitable by carbon life-forms.
Maybe they’re going to turn it over to silicon life forms?
(I escaped from MD a long time ago)
landlines on February 21, 2008 at 2:16 AM
By the way, the BIGGEST GREENHOUSE GAS IS WATER VAPOR!!! (accounts for over 95% of the “greenhouse effect”)
It will be very entertaining to watch the MD politicians try to turn way-too-humid Maryland into a desert by signing silly laws!!
Prepare for a long list of lame excuses when the Earth, in direct defiance of Maryland law, refuses to dry up!!!
landlines on February 21, 2008 at 2:23 AM
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