Economists Cite Flaws in Global Warming

Published May 6, 2010

As the science underlying predictions about global warming unravels amid scandal and contrary data, the economic argument against regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions is gaining traction.

More than a dozen of the world’s most knowledgeable experts on the economic impact of carbon dioxide restrictions will present new data at the fourth International Conference on Climate Change May 16-18 in Chicago.

One top number-cruncher, Ben Lieberman, senior policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, says, “The risks of global warming need to be weighed against the risks of global warming policy. Given what we are learning about both, cap and trade legislation would likely do far more economic harm than environmental good.”

Adds James M. Taylor, director of the conference and senior fellow on environment policy for the sponsoring Heartland Institute, “The economics of restricting conventional power sources will play a major role in determining whether Congress imposes carbon dioxide restrictions on the economy. Even President Obama himself has conceded that carbon dioxide restrictions will cause electricity rates to skyrocket.”

Among other economists presenting are:

* Gabriel Calzada, Ph.D., Juan Carlos University in Spain, who has refined his previous research showing that diversion of capital to create one green job resulted in the elimination of two regular jobs in the depressed Spanish economy.

* Robert Michaels, Ph.D., California State University, whose work on consumer electricity rates shows that renewable energy mandates are the wrong remedy for the wrong crisis.

* David Tuerck, Ph.D., Suffolk University, Boston, who contends federal regulations pose a major barrier to creation of green jobs.

The economists will join more than 70 other elite climate scientists, economists, and public policy experts at the three-day conference at the Marriott Hotel on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The participants, who represent both sides of the global warming debate, will develop the theme “Reconsidering the science and economics.”

Panels and keynote presentations also will examine the threat of ocean acidification to marine life, projections about sea levels and rising global temperatures, and the effect of the solar wind on Earth’s climate.

In addition, a panel of scientists and journalists will discuss the effect on the global warming debate stemming from the Climategate emails — thousands of leaked documents from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Britain. Those emails indicated systematic suppression and discrediting of climate skeptics’ views and the discarding of temperature data, which suggests a bias for making the case for man-made global warming.

The conference is produced by The Heartland Institute, a 26-year-old Chicago-based think tank that in 2008 and 2009 hosted three international conferences challenging the claim that a consensus exists among scientists that global warming has brought Earth to a crisis point and that human activity primarily is to blame.

Complimentary registration is available to qualified print, broadcast, and online journalists. For more information about the presenters, topics, and agenda, contact Dan Miller or Tammy Nash at The Heartland Institute, [email protected] or [email protected]. Or go to www.heartland.org.

The nonprofit Heartland Institute is funded by 1,700 donors. No corporate donor provides more than 5 percent of its $7 million annual budget.