An editorial from the Parkersburg News and Sentinel
PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — During a visit to Parkersburg last week, U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., spent a few moments discussing his trips to China and India, to view for himself the miracles those two countries are allegedly performing in reducing carbon emissions and other forms of pollution.
What he quickly discovered was those who point to two of the world’s top-four carbon emitters as fully embracing the environmentalist agenda are -whether they know it or not – spreading lies. Both China and India determined long ago coal is the most affordable way to bring electricity to their enormous populations. And both governments explain the international standards being tossed around would make it unaffordable to pull their poorest citizens into the modern age.
Even in communist China, a country that should have the governmental might to enforce whatever standards it wished, officials told McKinley it is simply not feasible to install carbon capture and other technologies. India – where officials openly said they planned to sign international climate change agreements, but had no intention of adhering to them – has announced it will double its use of coal in coming years.
Among the arguments for doing so is that western nations in which industrial revolutions and modern prosperity were fueled by coal are now trying to stop other countries from bringing the same resources and opportunities to their own citizenry. We have made our technological leaps and bounds, but no one else gets to make them the way we did.
McKinley said he is not sure where politicians and professional environmental activists got the idea that China and India are making strides against carbon pollution that we in the U.S. should emulate. It is simply not true, he says.
Meanwhile, Japan and South Korea – also in the top ten for carbon emission – are planning to build 61 coal-fired power plants. Germany is building more, too. But McKinley said there is not one coal-fired power plant on the table, in the U.S.
China emitted twice the amount of carbon dioxide as the U.S. did, in 2014. Its own government says it cannot afford to stop doing so. Why do so many believe differently? Who benefits when an agenda based on lies is pushed via unconstitutional means?
Perhaps a better question is, how many more are we willing to watch suffer before Congress and the courts put a stop to it?
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