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Global Warming 'Alarmism' Is Hurting New Jersey Economy, Say Conservatives Kevin Mooney Individual liberty and economic freedom are under assault in New Jersey where anti-industrial regulatory schemes are gaining traction because of global warming "alarmism," public officials and taxpayer activists declared last week in Trenton. State lawmakers in New Jersey and other states have succumbed to the "greatest scam" of the past 100 years in the form of Kyoto-type mandatory emissions caps at the expense of their own citizenry and financial well-being, Republican Assemblyman Mike Doherty said in an interview with Cybercast News Service. (The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; the United States is not a signatory to the agreement.) Doherty was one of several speakers at the two-day "Defending the American Dream Summit" organized by Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a Washington, D.C.-based grassroots group that supports free markets and conservative ideas. The economic liabilities of emissions restrictions figured prominently among the topics discussed at the event. While the United States, at the federal level, is not part of the Kyoto Protocol, a number of states have enacted their own environmental regulations replete with climate change "cap and trade" policies, Doherty said. With "cap and trade," the government sets a limit, a cap, on how much carbon a company can emit into the air. The company can then buy or trade "carbon credits" to offset its pollution. The New Jersey Global Warming Act, which became law last year, is the most restrictive and economically harmful such measure in the entire country, said Doherty, who explained why the law is a Kyoto-type policy at the state level. The New Jersey law calls for greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced to where they were in 1990 "no later" than 2020. It further stipulates that emissions not exceed 80 percent of their 2006 levels "no later" than 2050.
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