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Saturday, January 10, 2009
Obama "Climate Czar" Carol Browner scrubbed from Socialist International website
From the DC Examiner:
No, it’s not the President-elect, at least not explicitly. Conservatives are often accused of scaremongering when they claim left-wing environmentalists are actually socialists hiding behind green disguises. But with Carol Browner, incoming President Barack Obama’s freshly appointed Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change – the so-called White House “Climate Czar” - there is no question about the socialism. Browner is a member of the Commission for a Sustainable World Society (CSWS), which is a formal organ of the Socialist International. Oddly enough, the group’s web site was recently scrubbed to remove Browner’s picture and biography, but her name is still listed next to the photo-biographies of her 14 colleagues on the commission. The Socialist International is no group of woolly-headed idealists. It is an influential assembly of officials from across the international community whose official Statement of Principles describes an agenda of gaining and exercising government power based on socialist concepts.
Browner’s CSWS is similarly open about the economic costs it is willing to impose, across national borders to achieve its environmental utopia. On Sept. 5-6, 2008, the commission noted that the costs of its proposals would “rang[e] in the hundreds of billions of dollars over the next two decades,” and it called for a “redesign of the international rules on intellectual property.” That is international bureaucratese for compelling an inventor to surrender property rights in order to “share” technologies with less-developed countries.
At the Congress of the Socialist International held last June 30-July 2, the CSWS officially resolved that “market solutions alone are insufficient and will not provide the financial support and resources necessary to achieve the required combination of deep emission reduction, adaptation to already changing climate conditions, energy security and equitable and environmentally sound economic development.” Again, that’s bureaucratese. It means that international taxes should be imposed to provide the “resources necessary” to impose what the CSWS repeatedly refers to as a ‘regime” against “global warming.” By appointing Browner to a White House post, Obama has at the least implicitly endorsed an utterly radical socialist agenda for his administration’s environmental policy. The incoming chief executive thus strengthens critics who contend environmental policies aren’t really about protecting endangered species or preserving virgin lands, but rather expanding government power and limiting individual freedom.
When you compare Google's cache to the present version of the website for Socialist International's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, you can see that commission member Carol Browner has indeed been removed.
Canadians should be fairly familiar with Socialist International, as our New Democratic Party is a full member. Let's just hope Stephen Harper doesn't get any funny ideas from Obama or Jack Layton's environmental advisers about imposing a system where all allowances for emissions are granted by the government. Sorry, too late, and it even comes with friendly capitalist-sounding buzz-phrases like "cap-and-trade" and "carbon markets"!
Here's the CBC on the day after Obama's election:
"There are a lot of similarities between the positions put forward [by Obama] and our position," [Conservative Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence] Cannon said.
"This augurs well for a North American approach on environmental issues — specifically on climate change."
The Obama and Harper plans would rely in part on a cap-and-trade system.
"We've spoken about a cap-and-trade system, and, of course, we have been speaking about a cap-and-trade system on a North American basis, so some exciting opportunities," Prentice said Wednesday.
Officials told the Canadian Press that the Conservatives are waiting for the Obama government to take over from U.S. President George W. Bush before beginning work towards an integrated carbon market.
A cap-and-trade system would put strict limits on the amount of greenhouse gases industries can release. Polluters exceeding the caps would pay fees to those under their limits, without having to reduce their emissions.
A federal official with knowledge of the issue said the Harper government has been waiting for the arrival of Bush's successor before pushing a continental system similar to the one in Europe.
"We didn't want to go too tough on targets with Bush in the White House," said the federal official.
"Because then if they [Americans] didn't follow, it would place Canadian industry at a disadvantage."
An internal Environment Canada briefing prepared in April said Canada will seek a shared carbon market with the U.S. once Washington sets its own regulations.
"If a greenhouse-gas regulatory regime and offsets system is developed in the United States, cross-border trading in emissions credits and offsets will be pursued," the briefing said.
Posted by Kalim Kassam on January 10, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
I believe that Carol Browner was Clinton's EPA director. More evidence that the messiah has few people of his own that don't smell like Chicago or his past preacher.
Posted by: John Chittick | 2009-01-11 9:15:33 PM
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