Feb 10
11
by Jason Stotts
The Heartland Institute has a post up about how the Utah House of Representatives has just passed a resolution that: “implies climate change science is a conspiracy, and urges the EPA to stop all carbon dioxide reduction policies and programs. Among other things, the resolution claims there is “a well organized and ongoing effort to manipulate global temperature data in order to produce a global warming outcome.”
The full version of the Utah resolution is here. The general overview they give of the bill is:
This joint resolution of the [Utah] Legislature urges the United States Environmental Protection Agency to cease its carbon dioxide reduction policies, programs, and regulations until climate data and global warming science are substantiated.
Now, you might think I’d be very happy about this, and in some ways I am. However, I don’t think it’s the place of the legislature to get involved in scientific matters in any way. Whether anthropogenic global warming is true or false is a scientific matter and should be worked out by scientists. The legislature should take no action either way: they should neither support nor condemn AGW. I think the government should get out of environmental issues as they are beyond the proper purview of government, which is the protection of the individual rights of it’s citizens. Anything else is a perversion of the ideal of government and the Rule of Law.
