Cordato

RALEIGH – Scientific evidence shows North Carolina can take no steps that would reduce global warming. That’s a key finding in a new John Locke Foundation Spotlight report.

There is a consensus on global warming, but it is not the consensus that environmental groups and many in the media suggest. There is no consensus on the extent of future climate change or the extent to which current climate change is human induced or a result of natural variation. The true consensus — where there seems to be no disagreement whatsoever among scientists — is on the proposition that there is no public policy currently being considered to restrict carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by any level of government, including the State of North Carolina, that would have a measurable impact on the climate, either in the short or the long run (a century or longer). That proposition so far remains undisputed. (Revised February 20, 2007.)

RALEIGH – State Treasurer Richard Moore wants to raise the state’s minimum wage to help those on the lowest rung of the economic ladder. Studies show those are the very…

State Treasurer Richard Moore wants to raise the minimum wage in North Carolina to $6.15, “one dollar more” than the federal minimum wage. Moore says the minimum wage hike would help those at the lowest rung of the economic ladder. That’s counter to even basic economics. Studies show that raising the minimum wage makes it even harder for the lowest skilled workers to find employment — but those are the very people it’s supposed to help. Ironically, minimum-wage hikes benefit middle- and upper-income families the most.

RALEIGH – If North Carolina cut its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, what effect would it have on global warming? Nothing that could be measured, even after 100 years. That’s according…

Dr. Thomas Wigley from the U.S. National Center for Scientific Research has calculated that if the Kyoto Protocol were implemented with 100% compliance it would reduce the increase in global temperatures by between 0.18º F and 0.37º F in 100 years. This amount would be undetectable by standard measuring devices. It is unreasonable therefore to expect that North Carolina, acting along or in consort with other states, could do anything to mitigate future global warming.

RALEIGH — Medical providers in North Carolina must receive permission from the state — called a certificate of need (CON) — to add services such as extra hospital beds or…

In North Carolina and 34 other states, if you are a health care entrepreneur and you want to do anything from adding a new wing or extra beds to an existing hospital, to opening an office that offers MRI or other services, you need a “Certificate of Need” from the state. If this sounds like the kind of central planning one might find in a socialist economy – it is. In North Carolina, the central planning authority is known as the Health Planning Development Agency, part of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The role of this agency is to plan economic activity provided by medical-care facilities. This is done down to the most minute detail, circumventing the most basic function of private decision-making in a free enterprise system, i.e., the allocation of resources based on entrepreneurial insight and risk taking.

RALEIGH — The state legislature created the North Carolina Global Warming Commission this year and gave it a mandate to investigate the science and economic impact of climate change, but…

The North Carolina Global Warming Commission is tasked with examining the relationship between greenhouse gases and climate change, but only one of its 16 members so far is a climate scientist. It is also supposed to study the economic impact of climate change and policy proposals, but none of its members are economists. Rather than experts, the commissioned is stocked with representatives of environmental pressure groups and particular industries. Such a commission is unlikely to propose reasonable, scientifically sound policies — and far more likely instead to advance their own ideologies and bottom lines.