One of the soldiers—actually a Four-Star General—in our side’s quiet little war on junk science, the junkman himself (and our columnist, Steve Milloy), writes up a good tidbit in his junkscience.com web site today:
The High Cost of McCarbonomics
By Steven Milloy
June 23, 2008, JunkScience.com
Sen. McCain offers $300 million prize for new auto battery – John McCain hopes to solve the country’s energy crisis with cold hard cash. The presumed Republican nominee is proposing a $300 million government prize to whoever can develop an automobile battery that far surpasses existing technology… In addition, a so-called Clean Car Challenge would provide U.S. automakers with a $5,000 tax credit for every zero-carbon emissions car they develop and sell. (AP)But the Junkman says: McCain’s $5,000 tax credit for each zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) sold is ridiculous:
1. Based on the average automobile’s annual CO2 emissions (6 tons) and the average life of a car (9 years), this works out to taxpayers forking out $5,000 to avoid 54 tons of tailpipe emissions—that is, $92.60 per ton of CO2. In comparison, a metric ton of CO2 only cost about $5.80 on the Chicago Climate Exchage as of Friday, June 20.
2. While no CO2 is emitted from a ZEV per se, the emissions are merely shifted from the tailpipe to the smokestack at the power plant that generated the electricity.
McCain’s plan amounts to nothing less but stealing from taxpayers to buy political love from ZEV automakers with little or no reduction in CO2 emissions.
This exemplifies the problem the liberals have with our side: Steven Milloy is a biostatistician, lawyer, adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. He is an advocate of free enterprise and an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Milloy holds a B.A. in Natural Sciences from the Johns Hopkins University, a Master of Health Sciences in Biostatistics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, a Juris Doctorate from the University of Baltimore, and a Master of Laws from the Georgetown University Law Center. He’s also an investment adviser at an investment fund called Free Enterprise Action Fund.
Or to put it another way, the debate will be over when we say it’s over.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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