This affirms what I have been predicting — in fact, just now on the radio as the e-mail came in — that we’re going to end up paying India and China billions for a “pass” on a Kyoto II, a scheme the Obama administration will smuggle into place, possibly by simply calling it “not a treaty.” That pay day is in addition to the wealth taht will be transferred through capital and job flight as a result of whatever carbon scheme we impose on ourselves domestically.

The story notes that Waxman-Markey promises India and China some $15-20 billion worth of U.S. ration coupons, to sell back to us for the privilege of using domestic energy like coal. Should the price go up — as is necessary, and surely in keeping with the president’s express intention of causing our energy prices to “skyrocket” — well, that’s just more for them.

Let that sink in.

Also in return for them toning down their capitalization on the bizarre keening that the U.S. is doing (beginning during the Bush administraton) — claiming responsibility for the climate horror that, well, continues to refuse to reveal itself — the administration will call a promise by China, India, et al. to not exceed some spectacular rise in emissions a “reduction,” assuring the public the administration wrenched quite the sacrifice from them. That sort of sophistication is bound to make standing in the unemployment line more palatable.

There’s plenty to love in this article but I had to pass along the following gem:

“Critics point out that the poorest states like Kentucky also tend to be the most heavily dependent on coal and wonder whether these factors are related. But the political sensitivity over power prices persists nevertheless.”

These unnamed critic-wonderers might be on to something; if only we could make energy more expensive, why, imagine the wealth that would be created! It’s just amazing Johnson didn’t think of this in his war on poverty . . . every other hare-brained scheme was tried. Maybe they could examine the slightly stronger relationship between failing economies and government dominated by a statist-environmentalist ideology — like California, New York, Massachusetts, and the like.