Carbon Credits and Exporting Jobs

Guess what? We have a chance to learn from the mistakes of others - although so far, the Democrats seem entirely resistant to learning anything from Europe's experience. Europe has discovered what it means to be green. It means that you lose jobs to countries not bound by global warming treaties.

Europe has already hit a few bumps with its program. There's the Dutch silicon carbide maker that calls itself the greenest such plant in the world, but now can't afford to run full-time; the French cement workers who fear they're going to lose jobs to Morocco, which doesn't have to meet the European guidelines; and the German homeowners who pay 25 percent more for electricity than they did before -- even as their utility companies earn record profits.

And,

Europe's program has driven electricity prices so high that the facility routinely shuts down for part of the day to save money on power. Although demand for its products is strong, the plant has laid off 40 of its 130 employees and trimmed production. Two customers have turned to cheaper imports from China, which is not covered by Europe's costly regulations.

"It's crazy," said Kusters, the plant director, as he stood among steaming black mounds of petroleum coke and sand in northern Holland. "We not only have the most energy-efficient plant in the world but also the most environmentally friendly."

So there you go. If you impose these silly restrictions upon your economy, China and other countries that don't give a rat's fanny about the environment will start making the same products for a lot less and start selling to your former customers. And you can bet that when China or Morocco starts manufacturing a product, they'll do it with far less concern for the environment and the net result will be a dirtier world.