In or Out of Kyoto, We Still Get Screwed
by Matt Margolis @ 5:28 pm on November 27, 2004
Even Clinton new the Kyoto Protocol was not a good idea... Yet today, even though Bush stood his ground, we're still going to pay a price for other countries signing on to the Kyoto Protocol. With Russia signing onto the treaty, it has enough votes to become "global law" on February 16, 2005.
Even without U.S. participation in the treaty, American firms face extra costs. Plants in Europe, Japan and Canada that are owned by U.S. firms will have to cut their global-warming emissions. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that Kyoto will cost American businesses with overseas operations billions of dollars.
Countries that have signed onto the Kyoto pact might decide to subsidize their own products or slap penalties on U.S. imports, says Tom Richichi, a lawyer at Beveridge & Diamond who advises companies and industries on the treaty.
The pact "may create economic distortion, and that distortion may work to the detriment of this country," Richichi says.
I'm sure the left is very proud that they once again can contribute negatively to our economy. They essentially still get a victory, even if it's not the one they had originally hoped for. If the Kyoto Protocol hurts our economy, Democrats can blame Bush, regardless of the fact that liberals/Democrats are the ones who blast Bush for getting us officially out of the flawed treaty. If our economy will be hurt just because of our plants in countries abiding by Kyoto regulations, imagine how bad things would be if we had ratified it and implemented the regulations here in our country. |
