[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 160 (Thursday, November 13, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2347]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CLINTON'S CLIMATE COMPACT CRUSHES COLORADO

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 13, 1997

  Mr. SCHAFFER of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, this December in Kyoto, Japan, 
the United Nations will consider adopting a treaty regarding greenhouse 
gases. The treaty seeks to commit the United States to binding 
international agreements that would severely limit greenhouse gas 
emissions. Remarkably, the treaty will most likely exempt 132 of 166 of 
the world's nations, leaving the developed and industrialized countries 
like the United States holding the bag.
  If this plan goes through, residents of our State will feel the pinch 
in a big way. According to the Colorado Association of Commerce and 
Industry [CACI], natural gas prices would likely double, gasoline 
prices could increase $.50 a gallon, and household energy bills would 
see a jump of $900 to $1,100 annually. In addition, nearly 30,000 jobs 
could be lost, including about 7,000 in the manufacturing industries.
  When fossil fuels, such as coal, natural gas, and petroleum are 
burned, they emit so-called greenhouse gases--carbon dioxide, methane, 
and nitrous oxide. Some scientists have theorized that emissions of 
these greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and cause the planet 
to warm, melting glaciers and potentially threatening health and life 
as we know it. There is, however, no current consensus among scientists 
that the Earth's temperature is actually on the rise. In fact, the 
Government's own satellites and balloons, measuring the entire Earth at 
all altitudes, reveal a slight cooling trend of about one-third of a 
degree per century.
  Unfortunately for the American people, the Clinton administration has 
embraced the highly disputed theory of global warming without question. 
Consequently, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have recently 
unveiled their plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 
2008 to 2012.
  The burden of all this seems to fall disproportionately on 
Coloradans. Each Colorado resident has the potential to lose more than 
$430 in personal income in the year 2010, if these emissions are scaled 
back to 1990 levels by then. Also, housing prices would be 8.3 percent 
higher, medical costs could rise by 13 percent, and food prices would 
go up 9.5 percent.
  Recently, in an attempt to gain steam for the global warming 
movement, and to curry favor for an administration plan to cut 
greenhouse gas emissions, Vice President Gore visited Glacier National 
Park in Montana. He blamed the shrinking of the icefields there on an 
increase in global temperature. The fact is, those icefields have been 
rolling back since the end of the Little Ice Age in the 1850's, which 
itself coincided with a long period of low solar activity.
  It should be kept in mind that global warming proponents are dealing 
in theory, not fact. Even if their theory is cogent, there is still no 
way to know for certain whether manmade conditions cause global 
temperatures to rise. Nor is there any way to know for certain the 
extent to which the consequences of a global temperature increase will 
be bad or good.
  The American people clearly, cannot afford to remain silent while the 
Clinton administration risks the well-being of our citizens by 
proceeding at Kyoto, on what amounts to an uneducated guess.

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