Senate Looks at Financial Risks from Climate Change
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C., October 31, 2007—This afternoon members of the Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on the financial risks and opportunities arising from future climate change. The Competitive Enterprise Institute urges members of the committee, while investigating this issue, to fully consider both the costs associated with any future global warming as well as the costs of the government policies being proposed to stop it.
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“Humanity has always had to deal with a changing climate, adapting to natural variations in temperature and precipitation.” said Competitive Enterprise Institute Director of Energy & Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell. “The societies that have adapted most successfully have been wealthier, more advanced ones. Policies that would limit energy use and slow innovation would impose massive costs of their own – cost that would likely dwarf the financial impact of global warming itself.”
Some advocates of global warming legislation have gone beyond merely ignoring the costs of limiting on energy use, arguing that policies like greenhouse gas restrictions will actually be financially positive. Supporters cite the support of large corporations as proof that rationing fossil fuel use is an economically sound idea. What they usually do not acknowledge, however, is that the same companies are betting on future emissions rules being written in a way that advances their business interests while penalizing rival corporations and passing their costs on to U.S. consumers and taxpayers.
Energy & Environment Experts Available for Interviews
Myron Ebell
Director of Global Warming Policy
202-320-6685
Marlo Lewis, PhD.
Senior Fellow
202-669-6693
Iain Murray
Director of Projects and Analysis
202-331-2257
Christopher C. Horner
Senior Fellow
202-262-4458
CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information about CEI, please visit our website at www.cei.org.