History surely will show that one of the greatest public policy snookerings of the 20th and 21st centuries was combatting “climate change.”
It’s what you get when you cross political social re-engineering with scientists who rely on pols for their taxpayer-funded meal ticket.
One of the last men to walk on the moon — Harrison Schmitt, a geologist — and physicist Rodney Nichols exposed one aspect of the deceptive “science” of climate theologians in one quick swoop in a Wall Street Journal commentary this week.
“(A) myth persists that is both unscientific and immoral to perpetuate,” they write — “that the beneficial gas carbon dioxide ranks among hazardous pollutants. It does not.
“CO2 is non-toxic to people and animals and is a vital nutrient to plants,” they remind. Yes, it is a “greenhouse gas,” they note, but one “which helps maintain Earth as a habitable place.”
The benefits of carbon dioxide are manifest, Schmitt and Nichols remind. Primarily, the warming it has caused has been a great benefit to agriculture. And that “higher food security reduces poverty and increases well being and self-sufficiency everywhere, especially in the poorest parts of developing countries.”
Simply put, the demonization of carbon dioxide must stop. Rising CO2 levels clearly are a benefit to the planet and to man, not a detriment.
From the Department of Great Work If You Can Get It: Striking public transit workers in Philadelphia currently have a no layoff clause and pay $46 monthly for their health benefits.
Who knew unionized SEPTA employees think Fantasyland to be a real place.
One of the early — put still persistent — raps against the shale gas and oil industry is that it employs primarily transient workers — here today, gone tomorrow.
So, consider it positive news that Shell says the “vast majority” of those preparing the site for the new “cracker” plant in Beaver County are from there and Allegheny County.
The Beaver County Times gleaned that information from the 200-page conditional use application filed with Potter Township and the Beaver County’s planning commission.
But there’s a future caveat here. The Times also says Shell notes that construction of the plant itself will require a highly specialized workforce “and many of the trades and construction firms here aren’t interested in acquiring contracts for the cracker plant.”
To its credit however, Shell and the trades are reported to be working to bring those skills up to snuff. Whether a sufficient number of “locals” make the grade remains to be seen.
That said, Duquesne University economics scholar Antony Davies puts the projected economic effect of Shell’s facility in perspective for The Times.
He notes that while “every little bit helps” when it comes to economic development, the cracker plant will have a “miniscule” overall effect on the Pennsylvania economy.
But, Davies, adds, “The economic impact to the people who work for and around the plant will be considerable.”
And should the projected “spin out” of ancillary industries come to fruition, that effect, of course, will grow.
Ask any petrochemical plant operators what they key is to their success and the same phrase rolls off their tongues — “easy access to feedstock.”
For the shale gas and oil industries, that means pipelines that can move their product to these facilities to be broken down into compounds used to make things. Think plastics.
Lack of adequate pipeline infrastructure is said to have been behind Braskem America Inc.’s decision to build a new $500 million polypropylene plant in Texas instead of in Eastern Pennsylvania.
And while Pennsylvania has myriad public infrastructure needs, private pipeline infrastructure should rank high on the necessary list. Yes, pipelines are being built or in the development stage across the Keystone State. But operators say regulatory hoops are unnecessarily slowing those projects.
Yes, regulation is needed. Public safety and protecting the environment are paramount. But over regulation that kills the geese laying the golden eggs can only make Pennsylvania less competitive.
Colin McNickle is a senior fellow and media specialist at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
