Monday, June 02, 2008

Green Slush   [Chris Horner]

Former Congressman Pat Toomey, now of the Club for Growth, mentioned on the Cavuto Business Hour that green pressure groups might receive some part of the trillions of dollars that Lieberman-Warner will extract from the productive sector of the economy by the energy taxes found in that bill.

He specifically claimed that greens might receive allocations of ration coupons, along with organized labor and other favored groups, which they could then sell.

Lieberman-Warner’s champions claim that the revenues raised by the bill will be steered toward refunds to consumers paying increased energy costs. (In which case, why not offer a revenue-neutral carbon tax instead? Too transparent?) Even if the greens aren’t directly given ration coupons to sell, there is always the danger of slush funds in schemes like this, whereby some of the revenues raised by the bill might indirectly find their way to the greens. Either way, if true, it would of course be explosive.

A full reading of Lieberman-Warner’s details shows that the latter form of green subsidy is in fact envisioned, and presented below. This reveals at least one form of energy-tax funded underwriting of green groups and their various franchisees to do what they do — only under Lieberman-Warner, it would be on your dime, whether you like it or not. A small provision tucked deep into the bill creates a revenue stream for them to train other countries on how to agitate against the U.S., seek their own U.S. taxpayer-provided rents, and otherwise advocate for the green agenda:

Subtitle C International Partnerships to Deploy Clean TechnologySection 1331 Purpose and Construction

(a) PURPOSE. — The purpose of this subtitle is to promote and leverage private financing for the development and international deployment of technologies that will contribute to sustainable economic growth and the stabilization of greenhouse-gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system…

Section 1333 Establishment
There is established in the Treasury a Fund to be known as the “Clean Development Technology Deployment Fund.”

Section 1334 Auction
Over the course of at least 4 auctions spaced evenly over a period beginning 330 days before, and ending 60 days before, the beginning of calendar year 2012, the Administrator shall, for the purpose of raising cash to deposit into the Clean Development Technology Deployment Fund, auction 0.5 percent of the aggregate quantity of emission allowances established for calendar years 2012 through 2017 pursuant to subsection (a) of section 201.

Section 1335 Deposit

The Administrator shall, immediately upon receipt of proceeds from auctioning conducted pursuant to section 1334, deposit all such proceeds into the Clean Development Technology Deployment Fund established by section 1333.

Section 1336 Use of Funds

In each calendar year, all funds deposited into the Clean Development Technology Deployment Fund in the preceding year pursuant to section 1335 shall be made available, without further appropriation or fiscal year limitation, to the Clean Development Technology Deployment Board established pursuant to section 1337 to provide assistance under that section. . . .

Section 1337 . . .
(d) ASSISTANCE. — The Board, acting through the Secretary of States, is authorized to provide assistance under this section to qualified entities to support the purposes of this section.
(e) FORM OF ASSISTANCE. — Consistent with international legal obligations of the United States regarding intellectual property, assistance under this section may be provided —

(1) as direct assistance in the form of grants, concessional loans, cooperative agreements, contracts, insurance, or loan guarantees to or with qualified entities;
(2) as indirect assistance to such entities through – . . .

(B) support from development and export promotion assistance programs of the United States Government; or . . . .
(C) support from international technology programs of the Department of Energy; or

(3) in such other forms as the Board may determine appropriate…

(f) USE OF FUNDS. — Assistance provided under this section may be used for one or more of the following purposes:

(1) Funding for capacity building programs, including —

(A) developing and implementing methodologies and programs for measuring and quantifying greenhouse-gas emissions and verifying emission reductions;
(B) assessing technology and policy options for greenhouse-gas emission mitigations; and
(C) providing other forms of technical assistance to facilitate the qualification for, and receipt of, program funding under this subtitle…

(g) QUALIFIED ENTITIES. — A qualified entity referred to in subsection (h) is —

(1) the national government of an eligible country;
(2) a regional or local governmental unit of an eligible country;
(3) a nongovernmental organization or a private entity located or operating in an eligible country.

 

06/02 12:00 PMShare