The Greatest Hoax by James Inhofe

Author:James Inhofe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WND Books
Published: 2012-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

THE APPEASERS

When I think of all the backroom deals that took place during the Waxman-Markey and Kerry-Graham-Lieberman days, the maxim that comes to mind is: “No man survives when freedom fails, the best men rot in filthy jails, And those who cry, ‘appease, appease’ Are hanged by those they tried to please” (Hiram Mann).

I remember so well the Hillary healthcare push of 1993—it was the first attempt to impose socialized medicine. As I was flying back from D.C. through Chicago, I was so pleased we had virtually won the fight and defeated Hillary Care. I was on the plane reading the Wall Street Journal where I saw a full page ad by the American Medical Association embracing Hillary Care. Needless to say, I called the AMA from Chicago. They were appeasing the enemy.

And the same thing was happening with many of the energy providers during the cap and trade push.

Democrats were always so pleased with themselves when the corporate heavyweights would come to the table, but I maintained that there was no way they were doing this out of the goodness of their hearts or because they wanted to be good stewards of the environment. They were in this because they knew that they could profit if they played their cards right—and the American consumer would have to foot the bill.

During the Waxman-Markey days, many of the utility companies thought cap and trade was inevitable with Democrats controlling both houses of Congress and the White House. So instead of fighting against the bill because it was bad for jobs and the economy, they started negotiating with the enemy: they were appeasers. But as what always happens to the appeasers, they are, as the saying goes, hanged by those they try to please. And of course, that’s exactly what happened in the deals that were made with Waxman-Markey.

One of the reasons they wanted to negotiate was because they felt that regulations under legislation would be at least somewhat better than regulations by the EPA under the Clean Air Act. They also wanted to get a good deal on the allocation of carbon credits, which were limited. But in the end, the electric utilities didn’t get what they wanted in the Waxman-Markey bill—it sold the utilities short. And even worse, the Waxman-Markey bill did not fully take away the threat of EPA regulations. It did have language to restrict EPA’s ability to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards for greenhouse gases but this restriction was on a limited time frame so it left the door open for both legislation and EPA regulations.

When various companies came to the Senate to shop amendments, I said the last thing I wanted to do was improve the bill. I wanted to kill the bill, so I wasn’t much use to them.

Especially during Kerry’s last cap and trade push, many of the utilities, which primarily used natural gas and nuclear energy as opposed to coal, saw cap and trade as inevitable. When they realized that coal was

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