U.S. Chamber of Commerce goes crazy with climate change

Far, far away, Auntie Ruth imagines, there is the fantastic world of Crazy, where the chirpy people frolic and wave and grin ear-to-ear. They eat a lot of cocktail nuts. It’s not a state of mind; rather, it’s a wonderful playground where nothing is connected to anything else, and the people who live there can whirl off any fantasy they want and clothe it in truthiness. Where, dreamily, the citizens of Crazy conjure how consequences exist only for the-yet-unborn so what-me-worry and isn’t life grand?

Far away? Naw. Be here now.

The land of Crazy is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and king of the playground is Chamber president Tom Donohue. And the crazy is so whack—and so buried beneath the more publicized fretting by Donohue as to whether Newt Gingrich is attacking capitalism or Mitt Romney—that Crazy barely dented the news cycle. Consider: “Recent discoveries have confirmed that this nation is truly blessed with energy resources. We have 1.4 trillion barrels of oil, enough to last at least 200 years. We have 2.7 quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to last 120 years. We have 486 billion tons of coal, enough to last more than 450 years.

To tap our energy resources, we must speed up permitting and end many of the restrictions that have put key areas off-limits. Instead of handpicking a few technologies, we must harness all our resources, traditional and alternative—while expanding nuclear power and driving greater efficiency.”

Rub your eyes and pinch your ass. You just read that, straight from the land of Crazy—a vast supply of energy that we can frack into our cars and burn on up into the atmosphere. No regard for impact on climate change, none.

Think Progress estimates this would generate 1.837 trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide, and that “to maintain a comate compatible with civilation all of humanity needs to limit future greenhouse pollution to less than 650 billion tons,” according to the Stockholm Environment Institute.

Roger Niello, CEO of Sacramento Metro Chamber, wouldn’t comment on Donohue’s statement, but said, “I would say that a prudent energy policy would exploit all of our domestic energy resources including renewals [sic] using prudent and thoughtful cost-benefit analysis. We will not be well served by centrally handpicking of a few technologies.”

Not environmental, not crazy. Not enough. Write the Metro Chamber and ask them where the green—enviro, not fiscal—is.