When the economy goes South people suffer. But the environment is where the longterm, lasting damage is done. Leading the charge – as always – is The U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is exploiting financial fear to pressure the government into tapping more natural resources on federal lands in order to create jobs and increase federal revenue. Tom Donohue is the president and CEO of this organization that made its case in “An Open Letter to the President of the United States, the United States Congress and the American People”. Here’s the basic agenda: “rescuing the U.S. economy and putting Americans back to work” and denouncing “the congressional leadership and the administration” for vilifying “industries while embarking on an ill-advised course of government expansion, major tax increases, massive deficits and job-destroying regulations.” Translation: More logging, drilling and agribusiness.
And Get This:
According to Agence France Presse, organised crime gangs are using carbon emissions trading schemes as fronts for money-laundering, This comes straight from the experts who attended a meeting of the Asia Pacific Money Laundering Group (APG) said crime syndicates are resorting to new methods to hide their illegal proceeds. Emissions trading schemes place a limit on the amount of greenhouse gas pollution which companies can produce, forcing heavy polluters to buy credits from companies that pollute less — thereby creating financial incentives to fight global warming.
John Harrison, a security analyst at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said that the carbon emissions trading market is relatively new and crime gangs are taking advantage of loopholes in regulation.
- KBOO