RUSH: Get this. China, the ChiComs, signed a one-billion-dollar nuclear fuel deal with the Russkies, strengthening Moscow’s role as a supplier to the fast-growing Chinese nuclear power industry. It seems that some countries are faced with the reality that they’re dealing with, and that is growth. Italy is building back up with nuclear power, and the ChiComs, they’re not going to put up with any environmentalist wackos. They’re not going to put up with anyone saying, ‘Hey, you can’t do that because of the polar bear. Hey, you can’t do that because of the humpback whale. Hey, you can’t do that because of the Australian rabid bat,’ and the Russians are not going to put up with that stuff, either. So the ChiComs and the Russians, especially the Russians, years ago we saw stories on TV about how their population can’t make it economically, maybe freedom isn’t going to work out. And these so-called backward societies are moving posthaste to go into nuclear as an alternative source of energy.
Imagine. And yet we cannot do that. In fact, get this. The head of the IPCC, that UN global warming group that got the Nobel Peace Prize along with Algore, his name is Dr. Pachauri. He said this: ”It is ruinous for developing countries to pursue growth in the same path.’ He said human addiction to petroleum products was the root of the climate problem. ‘Climate change is unequivocal. The number of skeptics is dwindling.” The number of skeptics is growing. Thirty-one thousand of them just signed a one-page piece of paper signaling that they are skeptics. But, look, here’s the bottom line. Who is this guy? He is a politicized scientist.
He is a United Nations liberal, and he’s telling the poor people of the world: ‘Stay poor. If you’re eating dirt, keep eating dirt. If it turns to mud, take a bath in it. But don’t you even think about growth.’ Now, guess who else has been instigating that policy? American environmentalists. They are equating growth with pollution and destruction of the planet, and they, US environmental leftists, these people at the United Nations, Rachel Carson, whole bunch of leftists, are the primary reason the whole subcontinent of Africa remains a Third World country. There are people outside of Africa standing in the way of that continent’s economic growth and progress, from the UN to the United States, all a bunch of leftists, all on the basis of a hoax. Now, if they are willing to tell some of the poorest people in the world to stay that way, if they are willing to threaten the poorest people in the world to stay that way, can you then come to realize what their intention is for us?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I just printed this out. Following the news that the guy running the UN’s global warming hoax has told the world’s poor to stay that way and has every intention of spreading poverty to as much of the world as possible, there is — oh, wonderful! You know, I hate these British websites! I literally hate these British websites. They show up on the Internet as page one; when you print page one, and takes page four to get to page one. Anyway, here’s the bottom line because I don’t have time to print it again. It’s the Independent, the UK Independent. The first two paragraphs of the story tell the tale. They have had over three years’ experience with cap-and-trade (McCain’s big plan and Lieberman’s big plan) to deal with global warming. Basically, these carbon offsets where you go out and the government assigns you and your business X-number of carbon molecules, whatever; they set out how big your carbon footprint can be.
They tell you what it’s going to be, and then if you exceed that (and you will) you pay a tax on it, and you can buy unused carbon footprints from other companies, but either way, the company that either exceeds the limits or has to buy others for exceeding the limits is going to have to raise their prices. It’s just a huge tax increase. They’ve been doing it now for three years in the European Union, and people are starting to wise up. They don’t believe that any of this cap-and-trade stuff is about changing behavior. They have figured out that they don’t think it has anything to do with saving the planet. It’s just a backdoor ruse to raising taxes, pure and simple — and when I get to the break and have time I’ll print the story and read those first two paragraphs to you because it’s fascinating.
There is this story from Billings, Montana. It’s the Associated Press: ‘A new report from the Bush administration says most of the oil and more than 40 percent of the natural gas beneath public lands in the United States are off limits to drilling. Opening those reserves would give energy companies access to an estimated 19 billion barrels of oil and 95 trillion cubic feet of natural gas… That would require Congress to roll back environmental safeguards and lift drilling prohibitions on vast areas — from Florida to Alaska and across the Rocky Mountain West. The report, from the Bureau of Land Management,’ and according to AP, ‘is likely to add to growing political pressure to curb fuel imports and dampen prices by ramping up domestic energy production.’
But then they say this: ‘But it comes amid a development backlash in some parts of the country, where drilling rigs are blamed for interrupting wildlife migrations, fouling water supplies and marring natural vistas. ‘If we want to lower the cost of energy, we must be willing to use our own energy resources as part of a balanced and rational energy policy,’ said Assistant Secretary of Interior C. Stephen Allred.’ You know, here’s the problem. I’m feeling pretty irrational about this right now. None of this is making any sense, unless you look at it in a political sense; unless you want to believe that the Democrat Party is interested in causing as much economic distortion, malaise, and misery as they can leading up to the November elections in order to secure their electoral chances or to improve them. Because none of this makes any sense. To sit around and send our president over to beg the Saudis, to have to beg OPEC, have to ask others to increase their production? We’ve got plenty here, and we have all these obstacles in the way. The polar bear being placed on the endangered species list — by the way, the humpback whale has come back. It was on the endangered species list. It’s come back. There are 20,000 of them out there.
Does this mean it gets off the list? No, no, no, no! It’s just like a tax increase. Once it’s there, it’s there, just like an entitlement. It doesn’t change. The governor of Alaska, Ms. Palin, is out there going to sue the federal government over this stupid, idiotic ruling on the polar bear. There are more of them today than there were in 1974. Of course the answer to that is, ‘Well, yes, but the ice is shrinking up there, their habitat.’ Well, it’s not shrinking, and even if it were, let ’em adapt! They’re animals; they’ll be fine. They don’t need icebergs to live on! Hell, I’ve seen a couple of them in the city zoo in New York, in the summertime. Now, they do have to lay on ice now and then, have to keep the water cold, but for crying out loud, the things will adapt! I mean, it’s never going to get so warm in the Arctic Circle up there that the polar bear is ever going to be threatened.
Hell, we have to hunt the damn thing! Five hundred thousand a year shot or something like that because they pose threats and dangers. None of this makes any sense whatsoever, especially during a period of time like this. Most of the oil, more than 40% of the natural gas is on government land, and it’s off limits to drilling. Almost all of our oil we are not allowed to access. Almost half of our natural gas, we can’t get to it. ‘Opening up these resources would give energy companies access to 19 billion barrels of oil, 231 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Based on current consumption, the inaccessible reserves amount to a two-year supply of oil and a ten-year supply of natural gas.’ That might look ugly. We can’t do that. It might foul waterfowl and wildlife.
‘House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall pointed out that drilling on federal lands has increased steadily since 2000 — even as gas prices rose. He said [that the] report gives the ‘absolutely false impression’ that more drilling results in cheaper energy prices. ‘We simply cannot drill our way to lower prices at the pump,’ Rahall said.’ Really, Nicky? If we can’t, then somebody explain to me why we’re asking everybody else in the world to increase their output? These people are damn fools. How did it ever happen that we began to treat members of Congress as something special and five or ten cuts above everybody else, when the evidence goes to show that they’re just like everybody else? They’re morons half the time! How in the world can you say that there’s no evidence that drilling will help reduce price? We simply cannot drill our way to lower prices at the pump? Okay, fine. Then let’s shut down all of the drilling that we’re doing in this country. Let’s really go safe. Let’s really be environmental correct. Let’s shut down every oil well, since it doesn’t matter, since our own production doesn’t matter.
This is absurd — and this guy, as the chairman, is obviously a Democrat. It doesn’t say this in the AP story, but I know enough to know that a chairman of a committee that’s dominated by Democrats is also going to be a Democrat. Nick Rahall, the House Natural Resources Committee chairman. Hey, Nick, why don’t we try it and see what happens? Why don’t we try drilling some? Why don’t we try? Gotta get started. I mean, the ChiComs and the Russians and the Italians are moving forward on nuclear, and what are we doing? We’re putting windmills off Ted Kennedy’s place up in Cape Cod; we can’t do that because he can see ’em, and the windmills, what kind of havoc are they causing on birds and so forth? And now we’re talking about capturing solar power and all this other wacko leftist stuff. It doesn’t make common sense. Yet there are explanations for it — and then in Illinois. Dick Durbin, Little Dick Durbin sits in Washington, points his finger at oil executives for their excessive profits. His home state is bleeding people in taxes.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I finally in the break had a chance to print out this story from the UK Independent. Here are the first two graphs: ‘More than seven in ten voters–‘ that’s more than 70% for those of you in Rio Linda. ‘More than seven in 10 voters insist that they would not be willing to pay higher taxes in order to fund projects to combat climate change, according to a new poll. The survey also reveals that most Britons believe ‘green’ taxes on 4x4s, plastic bags and other consumer goods have been imposed to raise cash rather than change our behaviour, while two-thirds of Britons think the entire green agenda has been hijacked as a ploy to increase taxes.’
Amen, bro, because they’ve been at it for three years now. They’ve been doing the stupid carbon credit thing, the cap-and-trade thing, and they haven’t seen any reduction in global warming. And they still hear these same naysayers and fearmongers promising even more doom and gloom. They’re paying more taxes, they’re getting rid of their cars, they’re doing all the things that good little socialist people do when their leaders tell ’em to do it, and all of a sudden what the leaders promised isn’t happening and then they finally see what this is all about, separating them from their money! The next paragraph is hilarious: ‘The findings make depressing reading for green campaigners, who have spent recent months urging the Government to take far more radical action to reduce Britain’s carbon footprint. The UK is committed to reducing carbon emissions by 60 percent by 2050, a target that most experts believe will be difficult to reach.’ It’s impossible! It’s not possible! Well, you could turn the whole world into a Third World planet, you might, but nobody would want to live here, and some of the people aren’t going to put up with it. This is not possible.
‘The results of the poll by Opinium, a leading research company, indicate that maintaining popular support for green policies may be a difficult act to pull off, and attempts in the future to curb car use and publicly fund investment in renewable resources will prove deeply unpopular,’ as long as they still have their freedom. As long as they still have their freedom to say, screw you, greenies, screw you, Labor Party, we’re not paying your new taxes. As long as they still have the freedom to vote those people out, then yes, that’s a point.
Now, little Dick Durbin, sits there all sanctimonious, lecturing these oil company executives. Dick Durbin would not know what an oil derrick looks like if he saw one. He wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to produce a drop of energy. The same guy who accused our interrogators at Club Gitmo, where I, by the way, have a thriving merchandise business in Club Gitmo gear, accused them of being Pol Pot-like, Nazi gulag-like, Soviet gulag-like. He has the nerve to complain that, in his state of Illinois, Chicago residents are paying the highest gasoline prices in the country, and he points his finger of blame right at the Big Oil executives. Thank goodness, even in the era of the Drive-By Media, we still have some news outlets who will not let this idiot get away with that. It’s none other than CBS television in Chicago, the local CBS affiliate.
‘Tired of seeing the price at the pump jump every time you need to buy gasoline? Well, the record-high price of gasoline in the Chicago area is linked to a record-high rate of taxation: nearly 20 percent of the Chicago price. As CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports, tax refugees wait in long lines on Indianapolis Boulevard in Northwest Indiana. They jockey for position at a pump, lured by prices that are 20 cents a gallon or more cheaper than just a few blocks away back in Illinois. ‘It was $4.20. I can come over here and get it for $3.93,’ said Tikvah Wadley, one of the many fleeing Illinois taxes.’ Tikvah Wadley — that is a great name for someone fleeing taxes. ‘Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin complained to oil company bosses at a hearing on Capitol Hill about Chicago having the highest gasoline prices in the United States. Largely ignored was the role taxes are playing — an astounding 10 levels of taxation.’ And also in Chicago, when the price of gas goes up, the tax goes up. The federal tax stays the same, 18.4 cents, but in Chicago, a lot of other places, too, you raise the price per gallon and the tax goes up proportionately, and that of course is exactly the point for the politicians.
‘Gov. Blagojevich, for example, is counting on the high price of gasoline to bring at least an extra $220 million in the State Treasury in the fiscal year that begins this July. Most of that will be used to balance the way-out-of-balance budget.’ So while these guys, Durbin, Blagojevich, are all over television whining and moaning trying to relate to the consumer about this high price of gasoline and pointing evil fingers at the Big Oil execs, they’re privately, behind closed doors, they’re rubbing their hands, ‘Boy, we are soaking these people, and we are never going to get the blame and we’re going to be able to get some money,’ and they’re not going to reduce any damn deficit in Illinois. No government ever does. They’re going to spend it on something else. Then they’re going to have to raise taxes again. So the prices in Chicago land are higher because of government taxes. Ten levels of taxation on gasoline in Chicago, not to mention it’s largely because of all these different formulations for various pollution requirements that have been set up.