I've never met a politician that is smarter than the free market.

Or a scientist.

Or an economist.

The problem with elitist "management" of "free" markets is the inevitable unintended consequences. Sometimes those consequences are accurately predicted by conservatives. Other times it takes turning the government micro-management loose on the free market to see what happens.

“They quickly figured out that they could earn one carbon credit by eliminating one ton of carbon dioxide, but could earn more than 11,000 credits by simply destroying a ton of an obscure waste gas normally released in the manufacturing of a widely used coolant gas. That is because that byproduct has a huge global warming effect. The credits could be sold on international markets, earning tens of millions of dollars a year...


So since 2005 the 19 plants receiving the waste gas payments have profited handsomely from an unlikely business: churning out more harmful coolant gas so they can be paid to destroy its waste byproduct. The high output keeps the prices of the coolant gas irresistibly low, discouraging air-conditioning companies from switching to less-damaging alternative gases. That means, critics say, that United Nations subsidies intended to improve the environment are instead creating their own damage.” (MSNBC)

So while the whole concept of carbon credits was to reduce gases related to alleged global warming, this perverse system has actually created an incentive to create more of those gases.

This would be a good time for conservative critics of carbon credits to say "We told you so."

We told you so.

The whole concept of carbon credits is the worst of both worlds. Not only is the government interfering in the free market, it's trying to create a market out of thin air by forcing people to want something they really have no use for (carbon credits).

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Craig Steiner

Craig Steiner

Craig Steiner is a writer and political activist from Denver, Colorado.

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29 Comments So Far
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whess Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 5:30 PM
rboniferous Era and in the present age have CO2 levels been lower than 400ppm. In the late Ordovician Era, CO2 levels averaged 4400 ppm, yet that era had a deep and prolonged ice age. A graph showing temperature variation and CO2 variation from 600 million years ago to present shows no consistent or predictable increase in global temperature with an increase in atmospheric CO2. (rest of comment below)
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whess Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 5:13 PM
If you want some more facts on gobal warming, go to the search bar and search at "Planetary Temperature and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide". Several other links share this page that you may also find of interest. Found here was that from about 600 million years ago to about 450 million years ago, CO2 level in the atmosphere varied from 7000 parts per million (ppm) to 3000 ppm. During this same time period, average global temperature stayed rather constant at about 77 degrees F. During early Carboniferous Era (360 million years ago), CO2 in the atmosphere was 1500 ppm but declined to about 350 ppm by mid Carboniferous Era (about 380 ppm today) yet temperature for that 30 million year period remained constant at about 68 degrees F. Only in the Ca
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Blair31 Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 3:38 PM
Dr. James Hansen, of NASA, is a member of the High Church of Our Lady of Global Warming. If you
criticize the High Church of Our Lady of Global Warming, you're a heretic.
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The Teleprompter Speaks Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 12:40 PM
Did any of you hotheads notice this isn't about global warming, it's about a stupid government policy that attempts to manipulate the free market.
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Mountain Rose Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 12:13 PM
Anyone notice there is a lot of solar activity right now?

Nasa warns that solar flares could bring down the power grid sometime this year. And guess what? We have us some warm weather.

None of the Gore-Bull Warmies bother putting two and two together, because they are 4-phobic.
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kcalcut Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 11:44 AM
I just seen on TV Morning News Los Angeles broke the temp record set in 1891. Yep that Global Warming sure is with us.
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geotay Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 2:27 PM
'Recorded' temperatures are no where near the upper/lower limits of pre-recorded times. We're still here.
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kenneth416 Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 10:52 AM
I take it that Mr. Steiner doubts that Al Gore was right all along. I would invite him to visit me here in Las Vegas, where the temp yesterday was "only" 111 degrees. I fully expect it to keep rising through the month of August.
By the way, I am currently investigating the Internet. Preliminary data indicate that, while Gore may not have single-handedly invented it, he certainly was a player--in fact, so much so that I am willing to give him credit for inventing it.
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The Teleprompter Speaks Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 10:57 AM
It's never been that hot in Vegas before, right. I've lived in Las Vegas. 111 is a nice summer day in Vegas. It's not outrageous or unprecedented. It's common in the summer.
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Magna Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 11:55 AM
I can rub 2 sticks together and start a fire -will you give me credit for creating Fire ?
Based on your criteria and standards you applied to Big Blowhard Al Gore -the Sweaty Salesman from a Southern Tobacco Plantation -who figured out that he could make millions of dollars selling snake oil to the public with little effort -why the heck should he run for office when there was money out there to be made and you my friend are living proof -there is gold in them there hills as they say if you are to give that idiot credit for inventing the Internet !
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Magna Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 12:04 PM
And I have been in Vegas Several times when the temps exceeded 110 degrees -as a matter of fact once it was so hot -Southwest Airlines asked our departing flight for volunteers to depart the jet as we were heavy and they could not get enough lift with the full load of fuel to make the non-stop back -no one got off so we had to lift light and stop in El Paso for more fuel -and a propane tank had exploded at the Mirage parking garage it was so hot -global warming -hah -it is hotter than that all the time in other states 115 plus don't be fooled -you fool .
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Robert125 Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 12:10 PM
keep you head in the sand, you can learn more that is not true.
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Mountain Rose Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 12:10 PM
We had 112 degree temperatures regularly in the 1970s. We also had worse storms in the late '70s and early 80s than we do now. The weather fluctuates.

These idiots didn't say we were having "Global Cooling" a few years ago when we had record breaking ice storms on the east coast.

This is a religion to these Gore-Bull Warming mouth breathers.
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Cartwright Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 10:01 AM
"...it's trying to create a market out of thin air by forcing people to want something they really have no use for (carbon credits)." This also explains Obama's 'green energy' failures. The government tried to create a market for solar panels that did not exist, and what was the result? Huge supply, no demand, bankruptcy. Obama's solar boondoggles will likely set the solar panel industry back for years come.
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Magna Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 9:33 AM
As they say! Find a sucker -bump their head.
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Wayne410 Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 7:20 AM
Very poorly written article and I don't accept the authors opinions as fact without crediting his sources, as any good author should. Not only does he not cite his sources he doesn't even name the gases in his assertions. I'm as conservative as they come but I'm not just swallowing anything and everything written by people who may agree with me about global warming unless they follow the rules of good journalism.
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Magna Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 9:35 AM
Quite frankly you are giving me gas and thus I must go produce some Carbon Credits !
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Scott49 Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 11:19 AM
The waste gas is HFC23. They destroy it by thermal oxidation (burning it.) Here is a company that touts this carbon credit scheme on their website: http://www.gfl.co.in/.
Here is a long New York Times article on the subject: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/09/world/asia/incentive-to-slow-climate-change-drives-output-of-harmful-gases.html?pagewanted=all

What Craig Steiner states is corroborated fact.
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Magna Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 12:09 PM
The NYT is Carbon Fuel and nothing more -what a Rag -just like most of the Leftist newspapers in this country and that is the reason most have gone down the toilet !

They will blame it on the Internet and various other reasons but the facts remain the same -you reap what you sow -you give the people what they want -or else !
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Mountain Rose Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 12:15 PM
Are you referring to Gore-Bull Warming?
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Mag14 Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 1:19 PM
Wayne410 is right to point out that an article that doesn't cite sources is suspect no matter whose side it is written in support of.

Scott49, thank you for providing the source.
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Greg1084 Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 7:11 AM
While they build their vast cathedral (government) their leader, a cardinal named Gore goes about selling indulgences to finance it. The indulgences are fungible and have become a kind of currency that the people use to expiate sins that are both inexpiable (hypocritical use of energy by elites in their fabulous mansions and cars and privates jets--I'll leave that typo) and non-existent.
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Kenneth L. Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 7:10 AM
The incurable statists and anti-capitalists among us will not find this column persuasive. They'll simply look at it as evidence of more unconsionable, greedy behavior by corporations. You know, like outsourcing and shipping jobs overseas.

More needs to be made of the fact that it is inevitable that this behavior will result from clumsy government policies because companies have to survive. If they don't maximize their profits and minimize their prices by doing everything possible in that effort they will go out of business. Nobody is going to buy anything (even Olympic uniforms) at twice the price they are available at Walmart, from China. Nobody.

And it would not be good for anybody to do so.
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swestrick Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 6:49 AM
While congress did not read the obamacare bill but they voted to pass this mess to us the American people, they the Senators should also have to give up their exclusive healthcare packages and replace it with what they fed us the AMERICAN PEOPLE who PAY for them to be in office ,the same crappy obamacare!!! This article is just missing a little more elaboration on the healthcare issue. Thanks for this well written article on CARBON CREDITS....KUDOS to CRAIG STEINER. Now I just have to figure out how to SCAM the Gov"t..Wait I figured it out. With all The HOT AIR coming out of Congress..I could capture the exhailed CO2 from the Democratic Senators and could make trillions and pay off our countries debt!!!!
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Magna Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 7:42 AM
It was the previous Liberal Leftist Congress led by the biggest Kook of all time Fancy Nancy and her matching brethren in the Senate at the time Puny Harry Reid -what a dynamic duo of destruction and mayhem -with leaders like this why do you think the US of A is going in to the Abyss ?
Global warming is nothing but a shame -tell me -what was happening back in the Dust Bowl Days ? -was that Global Warming then or just another natural warming cycle as we are experiencing now-why were they predicting an Ice Age back in the 70's -what happened to that ! I have the Time and Newsweek magazines declaring such-Carbon Credits Scam!Al Gore Scam!
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Edward570 Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 6:03 AM
Where can I get my carbon credits? I didn't produce 200,000 tons of CO2 last year,and I'd like to get paid too.





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Frank158 Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 3:58 AM
You just can't fix stupid.
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glenn183 Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 1:33 AM
And that, my friends, is what happens when untrained politicians think they're engineers.
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king10 - formerly king Wrote: Aug 09, 2012 7:04 AM
Remove the words "untrained" and put a period at the end of the word 'think'.
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