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When Environmental Activism Does More Harm Than Good

By Nick Loris

Last night Heritage hosted the world premiere of “Not Evil Just Wrong,” a feature-length documentary that reveals the true cost of global warming hysteria and the unintended consequences of radical environmental policies that have been going on for decades. The film was broadcast live on Ustream.tv and screened at 6,000 different locations in 27 countries.

The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis recently exposed what would be the unintended consequences of the Waxman-Markey cap and trade legislation. CDA found that far more jobs would be destroyed than green jobs created, households will lose income, and the economy as a whole will be operating $9.4 trillion under its potential from 2012-2035 – all because of cap and trade.

“Not Evil Just Wrong” puts a face on the story that Heritage economic modeling has been telling as it documents the story of working Americans who work for industries that rely on fossil fuels, which is a massive part of the nation’s economy. For instance, “Small towns in the heartland, like Vevay, Ind., will become bastions of unemployment and poverty. Breadwinners like Tim McElhany in Vevay will lose their jobs -- and will have to start borrowing money again just to buy bread for their families.”

The real work on the Kerry-Boxer cap-and-tax bill continues behind closed doors at the Environmental Protection Agency, which is producing a cost analysis. Unfortunately, the public has been denied access to the latest draft of the legislation, which includes the distribution of hundreds of billions of allowance revenues to special interests and targeted industries. Ironically, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday to discuss how allowances could be distributed. Of course, the hearing misses the entire point, which is that any cap-and-trade scheme will increase energy prices and slow the economy.