Buried in all the polemics of President Trump referencing Pittsburgh in his June 1 announcement that he would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord — think Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto taking great umbrage to the mention — are the simple and shocking facts of a climate deal that deserves to be scuttled.
The president reminded the world that he “was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” Peduto countered with a diatribe about “sloppy” speechwriting that relied on outdated stereotypes and pledged fealty to the spirit, if not the letter, of the Paris deal.
“As the mayor of Pittsburgh, I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris agreement for our people, our economy and future.”
Given the facts, that should be considered something of a declaration of war against all three.
And that should scare the bejeebers out of everyone. For the Paris accord has been described as, among other things, “a giant wealth-transference scheme,” “nothing more than a giant Ponzi scheme” to pay for the “politically preferred energy sources” demanded by envirocrats.
Peduto, in a June 2 executive order, pledged to further reduce carbon emissions and promote renewable energy.
But at what cost to Pittsburgh’s economy in yet another in a long line of attempts to pick winners and losers in pursuit of “social justice”?
And what of Pittsburgh’s real problems – still woefully underfunded pensions, a static population that hardly endears itself to growth, a public school system that is an embarrassment, financially and academically, and a water system on the precipice of collapse?
One interesting aspects of Peduto’s executive order is that it reasserts calls for the “development of a fossil fuel-free fleet” by 2030. That means electric cars, supposedly. Charged by solar? Wind?
Considering that most electricity continues to be generated by natural gas and coal (33.8 percent and 30.4 percent, respectively, in 2016), and that heavily subsidized wind and solar energy generation barely registered (0.9 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively, last year), that’s an expensive pipe dream.
But it’s nothing that simply throwing more public money at won’t solve, right?
Additionally, Peduto calls for the “divestment of the city’s pension assets from fossil-based companies.” Political correctness meets fiscal irresponsibility. Why would any responsible leader further handicap the city’s already woefully underfunded and perennially struggling pension plans?
As a March 29, 2016, editorial in Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) noted:
“If they were honest, the climate alarmists would admit that they are not working feverishly to hold down global temperature – they would acknowledge that they instead are consumed with the goal of holding down capitalism and establishing a global welfare state.”
That’s not merely IBD’s opinon. It cites the words of Ottmar Edenhofer, a former United Nation’s climate official:
“One has to free oneself of the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy,” he said. “This has almost nothing to do with the environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation and the ozone hole.
“We redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy.”
This is Mayor Peduto’s model?
Shakespeare once wrote that that “the common curse of mankind” is “folly and ignorance.”
Or as Benjamin Franklin put it: “The first degree of folly is to conceit one’s self wise; the second to profess it; the third to despise counsel.”
Unfortunately, those quotes are fair summations of the current leadership deficit in the City of Pittsburgh.
Colin McNickle is a senior fellow and media specialist at the Allegheny Institute (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
