Turn Out the Lights, New Jersey subject logo: BUSINESS
2007-07-08
Posted by: badanov

New Jersey has just committed economic suicide, on the alter of enviromentalism.

Dan Riehl reports that New Jersey's leftist dominated legislature has passed a law which tracks with what the Kyoto Accord would require the US to do: cut "greenhouse emissions" by a certain percentage by a certain date.

We follow stories like this in the nation because frankly we work in manufacturing and have worked in energy. Naturally, we believe that "Global Warming" is a con game pushed by socialists to advance a socialist agenda such as price controls and extreme regulation for business, amongst other items.

Riehl correctly observes that these measures are sure to drive energy prices through the roof, there can be no question. And to be sure when leftist governments such as New Jersey's impose regulations, and given that a stifling number of employees who write those regulations are also socialists who have been state succored for a long time, it is more than likely the regulation will not just reflect the will of the socialist legislature, they will likely go much farther.

And as with all comedy acts, this one will be preceded with what will likely be a massive tax increase to pay for all the goodies state regulatory agencies will need to wreck the New Jersey economy. The chief executive of the state utility stated proudly and without a hint of sarcarsm:

I believe custom(er)s are willing to pay for the higher costs associated with the environmental benefits..."

Let's see: Higher costs due to the crowding out effect and a lack of refinery capacity which add costs to everything that is transported, on top of which New Jersey wants to add even more costs, more taxes and a draconian regulatory scheme, which will, in turn, add yet more costs, Consider also the social aspect of this scheme to transfer money from the private economy to the government where regulators and government officials will have the undeniable privilege and the money to puff themsleevs up as saviors of the world.

Great pickup lines in a bar or club but lousy ecoomic policy.

Pushkin, not one of our favorite Russian writers, wrote s short story in which he describes a couple going by train somewhere in czarist Russia in the early 1800s. The ticket cost more than originally stated because the reailroad added a "surcharge for livestock", a canary.

Pretty goofy, but it will be nothing near as goofy as the regulations New Jersey will write to give productive businesses all the reasons they need to leave the state.

Turn out the lights, New Jersey, the party's over.

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