Hot air from Spitzer

I've generally supported New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer's assaults on white collar criminals over the past few years. Companies have a legal obligation to manage their shareholder's investments properly and report accurately on what's going on. Even whan he went after Richard Grasso for the novel crime of being paid too much money, I supported what he was doing. If the price of getting corporate leaders to once again think about their duties to their shareholders was a publicity-seeking and ambitious Attorney General, well, so be it.

But now he's gone completely off the rails. He and some of his fellow AGs have decided it's up to them to save the world. They've decided to sue the largest power-generating companies in the US for contributing to the greenhouse effect. They're not after money, but they aim to force these companies to reduce their carbon emissions by amounts they specify.

There's so many things wrong with this that it's hard to know where to start. First, power utilities are already the most heavily-regulated industry in the world today. Countless agencies, departments, and regulators spin huge threads of red tape around these companies, making it extremely difficult for them to raise rates, build new capacity, or shutdown old plants. California's energy crunch of a few years ago was the direct result of populist politicians strangling the companies that made their air conditioners work. More restrictions will just create the conditions for more blackouts in the future.

Second, even if global-warming was real, it's not as if the power companies can just flip a switch and reduce carbon emissions. These emissions are a result of our modern lifestyle. It's as if they want to use a lawsuit to free us from the shame of being affluent -- by putting the blame on those that supply our needs.

Third, this is just so obviously politically motivated:

State officials spoke passionately yesterday at a news conference in New York about the urgency of climate change and their dismay at the Bush administration.

"We cannot stand idly by while our planet is so endangered," Connecticut Attorney-General Richard Blumenthal said. "To citizens around the country, they ought to expect more from our federal government. We're here because the federal government has abdicated its responsibility."

New York Attorney-General Eliot Spitzer called climate change "a global problem that virtually every other major industrialized country in the world is addressing, except the U.S."

What horseshit. Every other industrialized country is talking about doing something (even the US), but no one has really done anything. But these guys can get up in front of the cameras and say 'Bush is recklessly throwing away our future, but we're here to save the world.' Sure.

Still, there could be good things to come out of these suits. I imagine they'll have to prove harm by these power companies in order to impose these new conditions. Competing 'experts' in the courtroom! This could turn out to be the Scopes Monkey Trial for the premier sacred cow of the environmental movement.

Posted by Bruce Gottfred at July 22, 2004 09:18 AM | TrackBack