The president’s U.N. climate deal in Paris would raise Americans’ electric bills, ration energy and slow economic growth, costing the U.S. economy billions of dollars and risking thousands of jobs, all for little impact on the environment.
If implemented, the EPA’s own data show that the electricity regulation that is the cornerstone of the president’s pledge would reduce global temperatures by only one-fiftieth of a degree Celsius.
And Bjorn Lomborg, a world-renowned economist, recently testified before Congress that his peer-reviewed study showed that even if the more than 190 nations implement their pledges, it would result in a reduction in global temperature of just one-sixth of a degree Celsius by 2100. That is called all pain, no gain.
To justify its proposal, the administration makes exaggerated statements and predictions. President Obama often suggests that hurricanes, tornadoes and droughts have increased as a result of climate change. The facts are that hurricanes in the U.S. have not increased in frequency, intensity or damage since at least 1900. Government data also indicate little connection between climate change and tornadoes and droughts.
Along with extreme weather, alarmists point to long-term predictions of melting ice caps, rising oceans and uninhabitable cities. But any 100-year prediction is likely to be wrong.
Climate change is caused by a combination of factors, including natural cycles, solar variability and human activity. Scientists still disagree about how much each of these factors contributes to overall climate change. What climate alarmists say is sometimes untrue and often exaggerated. We should rely on good science, not science fiction, when we evaluate climate change.
A better solution is to rely on technological advances that have solved many challenges. U.S. carbon emissions have declined in recent years. Our national laboratories are working with the private sector to discover the next clean-energy breakthroughs. Let’s harness entrepreneurship and innovation and let technology lead rather than impose burdensome and ineffective regulations on the American people.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, is chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.