Maryland Climate Commission’s Green Fallacy Exposed

The Beacon Hill Institute has released its peer-review analysis of Maryland’s Climate Action Plan as pieced together by the alarmist advocacy shop Center for Climate Strategies (CCS). I’ve discussed CCS, their lemmings in the state bureaucracy, and lick spittle media advocates previously.

What Beacon Hill found is–shocker–the same for what CCS has done in other states.

1. CCS failed to quantify benefits in a way that they can be meaningfully compared to costs;

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2. When estimating economic impacts, CCS often misinterpreted costs to be benefits;

3. The estimates of costs left out important factors, causing CCS to understate the true costs of its recommendations.

Way back in February I wrote in the Examiner that with this climate commission, Governor O’Malley and his environmentalist backers are trying to fool us into thinking that we can have it both ways: reduce greenhouse gas emissions while growing the economy. That just isn’t possible, and Beacon Hill lays bear the fallacy:

For policymakers, the CAP report offers no worthwhile guidance. The report fails to quantify the monetary benefits of reduced GHG emissions rendering its cost savings estimates implausible if not downright unbelievable. The faulty analysis contained in the CAP report leaves policymakers with no basis on which to judge the merits of the CAP report’s recommendations for action on the mitigation of
GHG emissions.

In other words, CAP is a policy menu for raising taxes and energy costs all for a climactically meaningless end.

The Brad Heavners and Mike Tidwell’s of the world, with an assist from the Sun environment beat reporters will wave the CAP report like the proverbial bloody shirt in an attempt to finally push the Global Warming Solutions Act through the legislature. Unlike the deranged rantings of Paul Pinsky, this would indeed be a disaster for Maryland’s working families. Furthermore, should it pass the act would be senseless piling on as we are sure to see some form of federal cap and trade regime, whether it comes from Congress or the Obama administration implements it through executive fiat.