DEMOCRATS WAFFLE ON "CAP AND TRADE"

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Based on years of overblown “crisis” rhetoric of Al Gore, Barack Obama, and a host of liberal, big-government-loving greens, one would expect the Democrat-dominated U.S. Government to “pull out all of the stops” on regulating anthropogenic global warming.

Moreover, given the huge potential for new revenue that a crammed-down “Cap and Trade” carbon tax scheme could generate for the spend-happy Democrats to exponentially expand their tax-funded largesse and redistributions, it’s hard to imagine much more than token resistance among them.

Yet the reality of actually governing is proving to be much different from shaking down greeniacs for campaign cash or shilling for votes among drunken college freshmen.

Investors Business Daily is reporting that the Democrat leadership is not rushing to sacrifice American productivity and sovereignty on the altar of the globalist “climate change” religion.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., last week promised a bill "hopefully" by late summer. The House is unlikely to even attempt to pass a major bill until December at the earliest, according to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Crafting a bill is proving tricky. The Democrats now have a larger majority, but many of the newer lawmakers hail from Midwestern and Southern states where emissions cuts could hurt businesses.

Apparently the “adults” among the Democrats are explaining the reality of following the Gore-Obama plans for returning U.S. energy usage back to the early 19th Century. In a time of global recession and with what’s left of the U.S. industrial base near collapse, taxing the right to emit carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse gasses” is a formula for regional, if not national depression.

Instead, the Democrats apparently plan to “turn up the heat” gradually. As the proverbial frog boiling on the stove, the Democrat leaders hope that if CO2 regulations and taxes are imposed slowly enough, the average American voter will not take much notice and will not hold Democrats accountable at the ballot box. They anticipate that the Socialist Greens will have no other place to go and will be sufficiently placated by incrementalism and token moves.

In the interim, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the “blue states” following California’s radical environmental lead will become the stalking horses.

If the EPA does the heavy lifting through the Clean Air Act (as grossly misinterpreted by the power-grabbing liberal activists on the U.S. Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA), the Congress will be somewhat insulated from blowback.

Some in Congress undoubtedly want the Obama Administration to make the controversial moves first. That way, Congressional “moderates” from coal states and the Rustbelt can triangulate, hit up industry lobbyists for more campaign contributions, and bargain for complex carve-outs for home-town interests.

None of this is good for the U.S. automobile industry or automobile enthusiasts.

With General Motors and Chrysler “on the ropes,” Obama’s “Car Czars” will be able to extract huge anti-automotive freedom concessions in exchange for lifeline funds. Anything that smacks of high performance or motorsports will likely be bargained away, because “the people” (i.e. a minority of coastal Democrat “appliance motorists” and car-haters who do not believe in real free markets and who do not support the rights of “fly-over country” consumers to determine for themselves what sorts of vehicles best fit their needs or to enjoy motorsports) fervorantly believe that “gas guzzlers” and the promotion of “gas guzzling” are “killing the Planet.”

The poorly organized automotive community also lacks the lobbying muscle of the utilities and other competing emitters of greenhouse gasses. Thus it’s easier to single out motoring activities and equipment to demonstrate political fealty to the Green faith.

However, should the Democrats quit talking and actually cobble together some abortion of a “Cap and Trade” tax hike, American motorsports and the U.S. auto industry are poorly positioned to cope.

As the energy price spike of 2008 proved, automotive pursuits – whether sporting or business – are highly vulnerable to increased fuel costs. Any workable “cap and trade” scheme will amount to a de facto tax on energy and land use.

Such a tax increase would likely cripple the automotive aftermarket and OEMs. It would dry up sportsman motorsports.

It would crush the development of new high performance vehicles and lead to the abandonment of production for the few remaining “supercars.”

It will lead to increased rates of scrappage and reductions in the supply of used and replacement auto parts.

It will send bureaucratic “red-tape” soaring.

Although the Democrats’ actions on anthropogenic “climate change” have not yet matched the alarmist preaching of the wild-eyed, all-natural-fiber-clad green “evangelists,” the global warming “church bus” is still poised to crush automotive freedom.

The Democrats may be waffling now, but the automotive community is still poised to get pancaked.