OPINION/COMMENTARY

The Green of Green Government

The Financial Times recently carried an op-ed by Harvard professor John Quelch that gushed over corporations electing the "green" business model (or at least green rhetoric). This paean to the erstwhile "British Petroleum"—now "BP: Beyond Petroleum"—epitomizes the disconnect between academic idealizing and real-world truths. Quelch writes "not even the mighty Exxon-Mobil with its army of hired-gun lawyers and lobbyists unilaterally achieve everything it needs to maximise shareholder value -- not least the goodwill of a justifiably sceptical public. By contrast, John Browne, BP's quiet leader, has embraced the company's responsibilities to address global warming and invest in alternative energy sources 'beyond petroleum'." This is an embarrassing entry in the competition to bestow an aura of "responsibility" upon capitalists with a green hue even if one ignores for the moment that BP's Washington "army of hired-gun lawyers and lobbyists" is in fact twice as large as ExxonMobil's (33 to 17 according public filings). It seems not to matter to the author that, certainly in BP's case, their rhetorical positioning—"beyond petroleum"—is laughably at odds with their revenue streams. A BP ad on my parking garage boasted, "Solar, natural gas, hydrogen, wind. And oh yes, oil. It's a start." It's also—as BP positions itself to become the largest oil and gas producer in the world—a lot of hogwash....

Religion and the environment

Surely there is much that our Judeo-Christian heritage has to say about people’s relationship to nature. And surely, there is much room for people of faith to take an active role in fulfilling their responsibilities toward the world which God has created. Yet for some time, a growing chorus of voices has been attempting to redefine traditional Judeo-Christian teachings on stewardship, and ultimately, our duties as responsible human beings. These advocates are passionate about the environment. Unfortunately, their passion is often based on a romantic view of nature, a misguided distrust of science and technology, and an intense focus on problems that are highly speculative and largely irrelevant to meeting our obligations to the world’s poor. Out of that October meeting came a vitally important document: The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship. Designed to spark debate on these critical issues of humanity and the environment, it has already been signed by over 1,000 leading clergy, theologians, scholars, and other people of good will and is supported by three scholarly monographs entitled Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition that offer unique Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant perspectives on this important issue. Also out of that meeting grew an impressive coalition of like-minded individuals and organizations which recently formed the Interfaith Coalition for Environmental Stewardship (ICES) — a group dedicated to demonstrating widespread support for traditional principles of stewardship....

Pig Pool

There is nothing guaranteed to put your school on the map faster than getting involved in a battle over animal rights. At Nova Southeastern law school it was their annual "Kiss the Pig Charitable Fundraiser" that stirred up animal rights activists. Students place money in jars with the professors names on them. The professor who collects the most money then must "kiss a pig" which is a pot bellied pig normally acquired locally for the event. Instead of defending the five year old event which benefits a local hospital Dean Joe Harbaugh wrote in an e-mail on September 29th that ''I personally observed the animal shivering and moving its head from side to side as it looked [frantically in my judgment] at those gathered all around,'' I didn't realize that Dean Harbaugh had a degree in animal husbandry as well. That's not all though. How about this quote? ''I think if you look at this as an issue of helping sick kids or defending a pig's rights, most people are going to come down on the side of the kids,'' said Professor Phyllis Coleman, faculty advisor for the student animal-defense group. "But there are so many other ways to raise money without having to traumatize a live animal." All this fuss over something that lasts for a few fleeting seconds? After all if I was the professor I would surely want the kiss to be a quick as possible. To placate the pig defenders there will be a jar for those that don't want the pig kissed. I don't see that as getting much support as it takes the fun out of the event....

GREEN REGULATIONS SLOWED WAGE GROWTH

Last year, federal environmental regulations cost small U.S. manufacturers $15,747 per worker -- dwarfing small firms' combined cost of tax compliance ($2,582 per worker), economic regulations ($2,577), and workplace regulations ($1,014). Green regulations may become a major public worry if the economy turns south.

But according to the Independent Institute's Craig S. Marxsen and Carl P. Close, "workers already have plenty of reason for concern because for much of the past 30 years, environmental regulations have slowed the growth of U.S. labor-productivity and workers' weekly earnings."

Marxsen and Close also contend:

* From 1973 to 1995 "real weekly earnings -- what workers took home in inflation-adjusted dollars -- actually decreased."
* From 1974 to 1986 "multifactor productivity -- the efficiency of labor, machinery, and other inputs working together -- had fallen about 11.4 percent short of where it would have been without the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) heavy hand."
* Although productivity growth accelerated in the late 1990s, it mostly touched six economic sectors less affected by environmental regulations.

They conclude by calling for Congress to make the EPA more transparent and to reduce the agency's discretionary authority.

Predictions of eco-catastrophe, Marxsen and Close write, "haven't panned out except in one respect: They fertilized a federal bureaucracy that has imposed huge costs on businesses -- costs that have disproportionately dampened the growth of productivity and workers' earnings. The time has come for policymakers and the public to re-think their commitment to the EPA's costly environmental bureaucracy."

Source: Craig S. Marxsen and Carl P. Close, "Environmental Doom and Economic Slowdown: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy," Independent Institute, October 27, 2005; and Robert Higgs and Carl P. Close, eds., "Re-thinking Green: Alternatives to Environmental Bureaucracy," Independent Institute, April 1, 2004.

For Marxsen and Close text:

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1595

For Higgs and Close text:

http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=58


Follow The Facts And Drill In ANWR

Roll Call, the newspaper that covers Capitol Hill, reported on November 8 that the House $54 billion budget reconciliation measure would probably pass if the provision that permits oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge were removed. Moderate Republicans have requested that the ANWR provision be eliminated before the bill goes to the floor. Even if the provision is bounced it may be of little consequence because the Senate’s version includes the oil drilling proposal and it could reappear when the two chambers go to conference. It is time for Congress to stop genuflecting at the altar of fraudulent environmentalism and open ANWR to the oil industry. For too long, too many have capitulated to the phony charges that drilling in ANWR would ruin the region. Exploration will not harm ANWR, it will benefit America and that has been a known fact for decades. In a November 2 speech on the Senate floor, Senator Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said, “I was in the Interior Department in the Eisenhower Administration and helped create the Arctic Wildlife Range. …Twenty-four years ago during the debate on the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, I worked closely with Senator Scoop Jackson and Senator Paul Tsongas to ensure part of the Coastal Plain of this area remained open for oil and gas development.” In 1980, then-Senator Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson, D-Washington, wrote, “Crucial to the nation’s ability to achieve energy independence, one-third of our own petroleum reserves are in Alaska along with an even greater proportion of our potential reserves. …preventing the exploration of the Arctic Wildlife Range is an ostrich-like approach that ill serves our nation in this time of energy crisis.” Since then America’s energy situation has become an even bigger cause for concern....

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