Putting the breaks on greenhouse gas reductions
Although scientists from around the world have predicted dire consequences from global warming, the state could be making a big mistake if it mandates policies to reduce green house gases, a policy director at a conservative think tank told lawmakers this week.
"The global dynamics of climate change make it pointless, at best, and counterproductive, at worst, for the Texas Legislature to enact any mandatory (carbon dioxide) schemes," said Kathleen Hartnett White, director of the Center for Natural Resources at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Her reasoning: United Nations scientists conclude that the problem is so massive that any response short of a comprehensive federal program would be ineffective.
Comments by Hartnett White, a former chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, did not sit well with conservationists.
Ken Kramer, director of the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club, said that while its probably not possible to forestall some effects of global warming, doing nothing is also a mistake.
"Most people these days are definitely of the realization about what is happening and that we we need to do something about it," he said.
Hartnett White was speaking before the Select Committee on Electric Generation Capacity and Environmental Effects, which was created last year by House Speaker Tom Craddick.
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