Freedom Line Blog

The University of East Anglia is a taxpayer-supported university whose Climate Research Unit (CRU) has produced data serving as the basis for international studies alleging a global warming crisis.  That includes our own Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has proposed draconian, unnecessary and costly regulation of carbon dioxide. But in August of this year, the CRU admitted that it destroyed the original raw data for its global surface temperature set, claiming a lack of storage space.

In other words, the dog ate its homework?

Unfortunately, but conveniently for global warming alarmists, the EPA stopped accepting public comments on its proposed carbon dioxide regulation back in June.  But fortunately, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) filed a petition with the EPA yesterday to re-open debate.  As stated by CEI’s General Counsel Sam Kazman, “the EPA is resting its case on international studies that in turn relied on CRU data.  But CRU’s suspicious destruction of its original data, disclosed at this late date, makes that information totally unreliable.  If the EPA doesn’t reexamine the implications of this, it’s stumbling blindly into the most important regulatory issue we face.”

Dennis the Menace couldn’t get away with this excuse, and neither should the CRU or EPA bureaucrats.

If the Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Trade bill (H.R. 2454) becomes law, U.S. economic growth could be slashed by 2.4 percent and the legislation would cost 2 million jobs by 2030.  This, according to a recent study conducted by the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and released today.

The study, which was commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF), assesses the impact of the Waxman-Markey bill on manufacturing, jobs, energy prices and the overall U.S. economy.  According to a summary of the study, “The NAM and ACCF released national data as well as the analysis for 15 industrial states that would be impacted greatly if this or similar legislation is signed into law.  The full report, including the data covering the remaining 35 states will be released in the coming weeks.”

The Senate is expected to take up its version of climate change legislation in September.  This latest study is yet another in a growing list of reasons why it shouldn’t.

Read the full national report here.

Access the analysis of each of the 15 states that have released so far here.