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Dick Morris: Russia and China are Causing Climate Change, Not the US

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As the left ramps up its blame-game accusing Trump of undermining efforts to mitigate climate change, some core facts are useful to consider:

— The United States is rapidly decreasing its carbon emissions, largely due to market forces, not federal regulation.

— While we are cutting carbon emissions, China and Russia are rapidly taking up the slack by increasing theirs.

Since 1980, the United States has decreased its emissions of greenhouse gases by 65 percent  — despite more than tripling our real GDP in the interval.

Since 2000, our carbon emissions have dropped from 20.2 million metric tons to 16.4 million tons today.

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By contrast, China’s have risen from 2.7 million to 7.8 million over the same period and Russia’s are up from 10.6 million to 12.5 million.

It is not the United States whose policies need reversal — it is Russia and China’s.

Since we are, after all, one planet, it is a grave concern that increased emissions from Russia and China since 2000 have risen by nearly twice as much as ours have dropped.

Do you think Russia and China are to blame for climate change?

Despite the publicity about Trump’s revision of Obama’s plans to bankrupt the coal industry, the fact is that market forces have so changed the economics of electricity generation that natural gas now generates 32 percent of electric power while coal accounts for only 30 percent (10 years ago, it was over half).

Renewable sources now account for 20 percent of power generation (hydro — 7 percent; wind — 6 percent; biomass — 2 percent; solar — 1 percent; geothermal — 1 percent).

Neither Obama’s power plant regulations nor his climate change prevention plans are responsible for the drop in coal use.

Fracking, which the left opposes, is the reason.

It is fracking that has so lowered the price of natural gas that it is cheaper than coal, dramatically cutting carbon emissions.

Trump has also relaxed mileage standards for cars, but the conversion to electric, hybrid, and, soon, hydrogen cars will continue to drive down carbon output nevertheless.

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Even though we have achieved the holy grail of the 1970s and 1980s — by ending our dependence on foreign oil — we have achieved remarkable progress in curtailing our contribution to climate change and will continue to do so under Trump, because of market forces, not federal regulation.

The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.

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Dick Morris is a former adviser to President Bill Clinton as well as a political author, pollster and consultant. His most recent book, "50 Shades of Politics," was written with his wife, Eileen McGann.




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