For the first time the 2016 Presidential election may turn at least in part on climate policy. According to the Daily Caller:
Democratic operatives responsible for creating their party’s platform this year have unanimously adopted a provision calling for the Department of Justice to investigate companies who disagree with Democrats on global warming science.
A panel of Democrats voted Friday to approve a final draft of the party’s platform to promote “Progressive Democratic Values,” which apparently includes investigating energy companies who “misled” shareholders about global warming.
Another joint proposal calling on the Department of Justice to investigate alleged corporate fraud on the part of fossil fuel companies who have reportedly misled shareholders and the public on the scientific reality of climate change was also adopted by unanimous consent,” according to the Democratic National Convention’s website.
The drafting committee, led by DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, has decided to back ongoing investigations by mostly Democratic state attorneys general into ExxonMobil’s stance on global warming.
Currently, AGs [attorney generals] from California, Massachusetts, New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands have launched investigations of Exxon, and at least two AGs have demanded records on conservative think tanks and scientists skeptical of global warming. Such targeting has only fueled calls that these investigations are an attack on free speech.
New York AG Eric Schneiderman was the first to launch an investigation into Exxon, based on reporting from eco-left wing reporters at InsideClimate News and Columbia University. Schneiderman hosted a conference in March with other AGs to announce more investigations into Exxon.
Republican lawmakers and AGs have pushed back, calling the investigations into Exxon and think tanks an assault on free speech….
The draft party platform now needs approval from the full platform committee in Orlando in July. That document will then need approval at the Democratic National Convention later this month.
The Democratic platform didn’t just embrace prosecuting skeptics, it also approved a provision to get rid of fossil fuels by 2050.
Moving beyond the ‘all of the above’ energy approach in the 2012 platform, the 2016 platform draft re-frames the urgency of climate change as a central challenge of our time, already impacting American communities and calling for generating 50 percent clean electricity within the next ten years,” reads the platform summary.
The Committee unanimously adopted a joint proposal from Sanders and Clinton representatives to commit to making America run entirely on clean energy by mid-century, and supporting the ambitious goals put forward by President Obama and the Paris climate agreement,” according to the platform.
These proposals are extremely irresponsible and would be economically disastrous in the case of the ban on fossil fuels and unconstitutional in the case of the prosecution of skeptics. Since most other countries would not carry out similar reductions in fossil fuel use, this would result in a competitive disadvantage for the United States and any other country that adopts reductions. The prosecution proposal is contrary to the First Amendment of the Constitution guaranteeing free speech. The proponents claim that the First Amendment does not allow fraudulent statements. To my knowledge the only fraudulent statements have been made by the advocates of “climate change” control.
The skeptics have rather based their statements on very extensive and thorough reviews of the scientific literature. Attempts to punish free speech in this case would put in danger one of the fundamental precepts of the United States and set the stage for deciding many other scientific issues on the basis of political decisions rather than the scientific method. The Obama Administration had already made a decision on climate science when it came into office and refused to carry out a careful review of the science as they were required to do. The party platform would take the next steps of adopting the fantasy of eliminating fossil fuels and attempting to prosecute those who hold contrary views to those of the Government. Both proposals are beyond those currently adopted by the Obama Administration, and represent a far more radical approach.
Ending the use of fossil fuels would cripple the US economy by imposing huge costs for very little or no environmental gains, help our economic competitors by increasing their competitive advantages over the US, and cripple the capabilities of the US armed forces to defend the country. It would hurt primarily lower income families who would have to cut back in other areas in order to meet their basic needs for heating, cooling, and transportation, and other essential services provided by fossil fuels.
The persecution of critics is a hallmark of many totalitarian governments, but should not even be considered by political parties working under the US Constitution.