Obama's Global Warming Plan Telegraphs His Desperation

President Obama's Global Warming Plan Telegraphs His Administration's Desperation - Forbes

By Thomas J. Basile, Forbes, 6/24/13

His poll numbers are plummeting, and his grand speech at the Brandenburg Gate last week had a 95% drop off in attendance. Russia and China are laughing at him over the NSA leaker. He’s under siege for abuse of power and McCarthy-style tactics to intimidate both the press and conservative groups. The majority of Americans now oppose the forthcoming implementation of his signature legislative proposal, Obamacare. He’s fresh off a G8 conference where he insulted Catholics and all people of faith by calling parochial education divisive and an impediment to peace. He’s about to embark on a whirlwind Africa trip that will cost upwards of $100 million while agencies deal with Sequester cuts. His Attorney General was just caught lying to Congress.

Perhaps most importantly, “hope and change” still hasn’t come to the more than 21 million Americans who are unemployed or underemployed. There are more Americans on disability today, more on food stamps and more who have outright left the workforce than at any time in generations.

Yes, full-time Nobel Peace Prize Winner and part-time President Barack Obama is desperately trying to be relevant, deflect from scandal and salvage his legacy. He has had little to say of consequence since his inauguration but he hopes that will change this week.

On Tuesday, in true Obama fashion, he will try to make us believe that he is still the golden boy. The President will give a speech full of wonderful rhetoric about how the U.S. must act now to save the world for our children from the “greatest threat” we all face. Ignoring the fact that too many of our children are in failing schools, have poor nutrition, live in substandard housing and are raised in families where their parents are out of work, the President will tackle what he firmly believes is the most pressing issue of our time – Climate Change.

Yes, here we go again. Obama will attempt to dangle some shiny objects in front of the American public in the hope that they will shift their focus from all of the other problems facing this Administration. I’m sure some brain trust in the White House sat around the strategy table and opined that discussing Climate Change enables the President to talk about an issue that is popular with his base and will reignite his reputation as a global leader. They probably think, as they did after Newtown, that Obama will get a bounce from trying to act unilaterally to address greenhouse gas emissions, going around Congress to drive his agenda.

After all, you have to believe the White House machine is trying to figure out what to do about the 17 point drop in support for Obama among voters under 30, and the 10 point drop among independents. The latter puts him in the mid 30’s with that critical demographic.

The President’s Climate Change plan, which will be unveiled on Tuesday at Georgetown University, will likely receive a positive review from the environmental lobby. The environmentalists will also do their part to give the president cover with moderates and conservatives by saying it doesn’t go far enough. But to those Americans who are still concerned about the economy, jobs and this Administration’s proclivity for playing fast and loose with the Constitution, it will be further evidence of Obama’s disconnect with reality and his allegiance to politics and ideology over the needs of America’s families and businesses.

The President is expected to propose new standards limiting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to be developed and enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency. This is a doubling down on the Obama method of stomping his feet and whining about Congressional dithering, thereby justifying supposedly bold executive action.

The extent of Obama’s latest inventory of executive fiats isn’t yet fully known, but it doesn’t really matter. A few things are already for certain. It will mean higher energy prices for most Americans. It will mean increasing the already outrageous costs of building power plants in the United States. It will lead to the closure of certain coal-fired plants across the country.

Of course whatever the plan, it has no hope of curbing Climate Change and it unquestionably will not lead to the short term job creation Americans need. Don’t be fooled by more talk of a green economy.

The President loves to talk about our national responsibility to do something about Climate Change, he looks at the issue in an overly simplistic fashion. He believes “leading” on Climate Change is similar to our patriotic duty to pay more taxes. What he fails to realize is that he has a responsibility to protect the free market, to foster an economic environment that will put people to work, and uphold the Constitution despite the pressures of Progressive elites who surround this White House.

He fails to realize is that the environment is bigger than him and it’s bigger than the U.S. While the world’s largest economies focus on growing GDP, industrialization, and commercialization, the U.S. cannot put itself at a competitive disadvantage for the sake of hoping that other nations will altruistically be willing to similarly hamper their activities in favor of some Climate Change strategy.

Like his views on nuclear disarmament, Obama’s Climate Change rhetoric reflects his willingness to drive an agenda that will put America at a global disadvantage.

Look, I don’t have a problem if you believe that Climate Change exists. It does. It has existed since time began. Climate cycles have been thoroughly catalogued in the annals of human history and they existed long before man put pen to paper to chisel stone. However, regulations that could cause the shuttering of power plants will lead to more unreliability within our already aging electrical grid. Additional mandates will hit the middle class in the pocket the hardest.