President Obama has been pushing for climate control legislation not only in the U.S., but world-wide. Since this issue is less important to most people than the next Kardashian antic, why it is so important to him is a logical question.
After all, the credibility of climate control has been discredited significantly in the last few years. Not only have researchers been found to have fudged the data but also that pesky climate has shown no warming in the last 30 years. The both polar ice caps have been gaining ice volume and area.
So why is Obama so adamant that we need world-wide climate change law? The answer is simple. Just follow the money.
I am not talking about grant funding to study climate change or subsidized loans to solar fields or wind farms. That is chicken feed in the grand scheme of things. No, what I am talking about is a scam with potential to be bigger than anything else in the world.
That scam is the Chicago Climate Exchange, identified as CCX. The CCX is an exchange that was created in 2001 and began trading in 2003. According to its website, the “Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) operates North America’s only cap and trade system for all six greenhouse gases, with global affiliates and projects worldwide.” It is patterned after the major US and foreign stock and commodity exchanges, with its intent being to trade greenhouse gas management, or “carbon credits.”
The CCX takes a small fee for each transaction. If there were world-wide legislation requiring companies to buy carbon credits, the profit potential for the CCX would be enormous. Think S&P 500 on steroids. It is projected that mandatory carbon credit trading volume would exceed all of the world’s stock exchanges combined.
The CCX ceased to trade carbon in 2010. Participation in the CCX was voluntary, and therein was the problem for the owners. As long as the system was voluntary there was very little trading volume. The exchange wouldn’t really become profitable unless trading carbon credits becomes mandatory in the US and worldwide.
That does not mean the CCX ceased to exist. It is still a company, it has just ceased to operate. Do you really believe that the initial investors are willing to write off their investment as long as Obama is in office?
Ownership of the CCX was, and is, somewhat surprising. There are major manufacturers and car companies such as Ford, DuPont, and Motorola, power companies, universities (?), a long list of Offset Aggregators (whatever those are), a small list of Retiring/Offsets, the Rainforest Alliance, and others including the former head of Fannie Mae. Goldman Sachs, from whence former Secretary of Treasury Geithner and other high ranking Obama officials originated, holds a significant interest in the CCX. No conflict there, right?
Along that line, do you really believe Obama does not have a stake, however deeply hidden, in the CCX? Given his record of flaunting the law in other areas, I have no doubt. And now seems the opportune time to renew pursuit of international law requiring carbon offsets, since no one seems to be paying attention.
At the recent U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris, the Paris Agreement was negotiated. It will become law if joined by at least 55 countries. which together. represent 55 percent of the global greenhouse emissions The lead in this was Obama, who argued both for international law and admitted approval would need to come from countries besides the U.S. And you thought the issue was dead.
Such a decision would affect everyone. Like hidden taxes, you would not directly see the effects. The price of goods would simply increase as producers would pass the cost along. Logical costs would be to automobiles, power companies, and freight companies. Less obvious would be your smart phone or tablet (they use electricity and the components are metals and plastic) and food (farm equipment and chemicals). In other words, virtually anything you buy would in small part make Obama and his capitalist cronies rich. And that, in a nutshell, is what Obama’s push for climate legislation is all about.
As a final note, the Republican Lincoln Day Dinner will be on Feb. 12. You can get tickets at ccrcc@earthlink.net or by calling the CCRCC Treasurer at 989-941-5361. In the interest of fairness, if the Churchill Democrat Central Committee would let me know their events I would mention them as well. I might even go to one.
Tom Riggins’ column appears every other Friday. He may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com.