Andrew Follett
Obama’s Paris global warming agreement is deviously designed to attack opponents of administration’s environmental policies, according to analysis by Marlo Lewis of the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute.
“Too many conservatives think Obama is fighting the last war for a “legally binding” treaty like Kyoto or Copenhagen, and came up empty handed in Paris. In fact, Obama got exactly what he wanted: the framework for a never-ending, global, political-pressure campaign directed against U.S. advocates of affordable, market-driven energy,” Lewis told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Lewis argues in his analysis that the agreement is designed to be “politically binding,” which allows Obama to pretend that the resolution isn’t a treaty, and therefore avoid a Senate vote he would almost certainly lose. Essentially, Lewis writes that Obama got the perfect agreement, one which will force his agenda through while avoiding a politically embarrassing Senate vote. Lewis later takes aim at other analysts who claim the agreementis a “paper tiger” because it is not legally binding.
“GOP leaders will get rolled unless they quickly clarify… that Paris is a treaty, hence is merely a proposal of the Obama administration, not a policy of the United States, until and unless the Senate ratifies it,” Lewis continued. “Thanks to Paris, 190 foreign heads of state, hundreds of Democratic pols, scores of green advocacy groups, and legions of liberal pundits will be primed to denounce Republicans for breaking ‘America’s promises’ and sacrificing mankind’s future on the altar of corporate greed.”
Despite the proven flaws of solar and wind power as energy sources, the Obama administration is using the Paris agreement to push for more of the same through the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.
The administration will encourage specific technologies, creating powerful incentives for corruption, which even environmentalists acknowledge.
The recent Volkswagen scandal illustrates that attempts by regulators to force a specific technology, like the adoption of allegedly cleaner diesel engines, create incentives that foster sophisticated cheating by companies looking to improve their bottom line.
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