Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) along with Senator Hilary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is a co-sponsor of the Lieberman-McCain cap-and-trade bill.  As a presidential candidate, Obama has now pledged to do more.  In a speech in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on October 8, Senator Obama laid out a comprehensive program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions dramatically.  Obama’s goal is to reduce emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.  This is in line with the prescription of former Vice President Al Gore and many radical environmental pressure groups of what is necessary to save the planet.

Obama’s plan includes a cap-and-trade program covering all sectors of the economy.  Unlike most other similar proposals, Obama would not allocate any of the emissions credits or permits for free.  Instead, permits would be auctioned to emitters.  The powerful special interests that believe that when a cap-and-trade program is enacted they will be able to push to the front of the trough and get more credits than less powerful special interests are not going to be pleased by Obama’s auction approach.    

Another refreshing aspect of Obama’s speech was that he recognized that global warming policies have costs.  According to a story in the Washington Times, “Mr. Obama said the transition would be costly in the short run for U.S. consumers, taxpayers and businesses, requiring the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars.  ‘It will not come without cost or without sacrifice,’ he said.

Around the world

The British government decided that it would be a good idea to send copies of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth to all schools, with then Environment Secretary (now Foreign Secretary) David Miliband declaring that “the debate over science is over.” Well, it may be, but not in the way Gore portrays it. A truck driver and school governor, Stuart Dimmock, took the government to court, alleging that the film portrays “partisan political views,” the promotion of which is illegal in schools under the Education Act 1996.

The judge has decided that this is indeed the case and that the Government’s guidance notes that accompanied the film exacerbated the problem.

In order for the film to be shown, the Government must first amend their Guidance Notes to Teachers to make clear that 1.) The Film is a political work and promotes only one side of the argument. 2.) If teachers present the Film without making this plain they may be in breach of section 406 of the Education Act 1996 and guilty of political indoctrination. 3.) Eleven inaccuracies have to be specifically drawn to the attention of school children.

A full listing of the noted inaccuracies may be found here. 

This is a far better result than refusing to allow the film to be shown at all. It requires that students be told by teachers that Al Gore is factually inaccurate, misleading and - in one case - making things up. These inconvenient truths for the former Vice President have been covered up or obscured by the hype surrounding his film. Students will now realize that there are significant shortcomings and inaccuracies in the way the global warming scare has been presented to them. This is a victory for honest debate, a victory for science and a victory for education.

The comprehensive guide to Gore's innacuracies is, of course, Marlo Lewis' "Al Gore's Science Fiction."