HJR12: It’s getting hot, hot, hot…..

The controversy about Global Warming continues amongst Utah’s Legislators with HJR12, Climate Change Joint Resolution which passed the Utah House yesterday 56-17.  The Resolution will now go to the Senate for review.

Here are some gems reported in the Deseret News:

Sponsor Rep. Kerry Gibson, R-Ogden, a dairy farmer….said some argue that if the Environmental Protection Agency goes forward with cap and trade on CO2, it could lead to a “cow tax.”

Then cows like his own could be measured for “belches” and other gases they produce, which in turn could lead to a head tax that would increase the cost of milk and meat to consumers.

“I believe in global warming,” Gibson said. “I believe in global cooling, in (weather) cycles. We’ve had an ice age, extreme heat,” but can humans, “in our everyday lives,” change the environment around us?

Instead, through inaccurate data and a general type of hysteria, the public has been pushed to make improper judgments, he said. And adopting CO2 cap and trade would be a diabolical mistake. Such action is really “an energy tax” that will harm all Americans, harm jobs in this country and likely have little or no effect on global warming.

Some representatives opposed to HJR12 have pointed out that EPA grants could be in risk of not being issued to Utah if it actually took the advice of the Resolution, putting on hold any research on clean air and funds for revamping school buses.  But another representative had this gem:

But the idea that CO2 is somehow detrimental to humans, or to the earth, brought Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, out of his chair.

“CO2 does not give us red days” of air pollution warnings on the Wasatch Front, he said. “That is absolutely untrue.”

“First do no harm,” said Noel. And cap and trade will do great harm, he added.

The resolution would have no legal bearing.  The sentiment, though, of “doing great harm” is a blind-sighted view to the harm that will continue to be done to all life on our planet if something is not done to protect it, making the things that these legislators opposed to Global Warming value in their lives moot.

(cross-posted to Utah Legislature Watch)