When carbon cap-and-trade legislation officially died in Congress last year, many environmentalists lamented defeat while coal and oil proponents celebrated victory. As a scientist who has been working in the environmental industry for decades, I found both reactions misguided. Subsequent events have — I am sorry to say — proven me right. Thanks to the most aggressive and radicalized Environmental Protection Agency in history, the Obama administration is strangling America’s energy sector in the name of greenhouse gas reduction. But then cap and trade was never really about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It was about raising revenue. The United States has long had multiple emission reduction programs in place, and these will continue to grow. Thirty-three states have Renewable Portfolio Standards programs, which force gradual declines in fossil fuel power generation. Some portions of the country have (or will have) regional trading programs in place. Energy conservation mandates abound.
All of these efforts, and many others, have been spectacularly successful. Recently released EPA data shows that America is back down to mid-1990s levels of emissions. On a per capita basis, greenhouse gas emissions in the United States declined by 16 percent over the last decade. That reduction is almost 50 percent better than what the 15 richest nations in Europe (the EU-15) achieved in the same time frame, even though Europe has had a cap-and-trade program in place.
