Regarding the Tribune’s July 18 editorial on Charlie Crist’s global warming proposals, it is quite striking that the Tribune did not specify the means by which Crist is “envisioning economic payoffs and job creation.” The answer, of course, is that no such economic payoffs and job creation will occur. Indeed, just the opposite will happen.
Just this spring, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Congressional Budget Office published separate studies concluding that carbon dioxide reductions would significantly harm the U.S. economy.
The Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates has determined that the Kyoto Protocol would cost 2.4 million American jobs and reduce Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 3.2 percent annually, costing the United States $300 billion per year.
Even the Clinton-Gore administration’s Energy Information Agency determined that Kyoto-style carbon dioxide reductions would reduce national GDP by 4.2 percent annually.
So where are the facts to support Crist’s assertion? Answer: There are none.
James M. Taylor ([email protected]) is senior fellow for environment policy for The Heartland Institute.
