Flouting constitutional law, simple facts and the U.S. Senate, the Clinton administration signed the Kyoto global- warming treaty Thursday. But there's a problem. The Constitution requires that treaties be approved by the Senate, and it hasn't done so with the Kyoto pact.
The symbolic signing snubs the Senate, which said it would not support the treaty unless developing nations agreed to the same restrictions. Kyoto would force the U.S. to cut greenhouse gas emissions - mostly carbon dioxide - to 7% below '90 levels in the next 10 to 14 years.
There's a very good reason the Senate hasn't endorsed the pact. Implementation would be expensive -very expensive. By the government's own estimates it would cost as much as $397 billion in '10 alone. The U.S. economy under the Kyoto accord that year would be more than 4% smaller than an economy without the treaty.
Electricity costs could jump as much as 86%. Sixty-six cents would be added to the cost of a gallon of gasoline. Lost jobs: nearly 2.5 million.
That's a crippling price tag for a theory not yet proven. Despite the drumbeat by the Clinton administration and its allies in the environmental movement, there's simply no scientific evidence that human activity will cause a climate disaster.
But ever since they stopped scaring everyone with their apocalyptic the-ice-age-is-coming warnings two decades ago, environmentalists have been saying that the Earth is at risk of Armageddon due to global warming.
Is it really? And if it is, are humans to blame?
The answer to the first: maybe. It's difficult to prove. Comparing temperatures in the 1990s taken with modern equipment to temperatures recorded in the 1890s measured with archaic equipment is dubious.
Satellites are a more reliable gauge. They've shown that Earth's temperature hasn't warmed in the last 20 years. That covers a period when worldwide CO2 emissions have been high.
The answer to the second: probably not. Most - maybe all - of the claimed warming occurred in the first half of the century. Carbon dioxide emissions were lower then.
That indicates that warming occurred for other reasons. Scientists are looking at several factors: the sun's magnetic activity, which affects its energy output; the Earth's oval-shaped orbit that sometimes puts it closer to the sun; and natural climate cycles.
Much of the business community is opposed to the Kyoto treaty. There are exceptions. In league with environmentalists are businesses that will gain from the treaty.
Among them is the natural gas industry. If the assumptions used by the Council of Economic Advisors in its Kyoto cost estimate became policy, coal would be replaced by natural gas as the fuel to fire electric-power generators.
So much for the coal industry. Because it produces more CO2 than any other fossil fuel when burned, it would fall out of favor among bureaucrats.
Others with a stake in the ratification of Kyoto are the alternative and renewable fuel industries. Ethanol producers stand to benefit, as well.
Even some major oil companies are excited by the prospect of government grants and tax credits for research into alternative fuels. And their products are also a substitute for coal.
The administration hopes that Thursday's signing will be a sign of good faith to developing nations and will draw them into the treaty. Typical Clintonesque politics.
If the White House were honest, it would have sent the treaty to the Senate for ratification when it was agreed to last December.
But it didn't. Instead of following the rules, the White House has carried on a campaign of treaty implementation by stealth. Administration budget requests, Environmental Protection Agency pressure on states and federal energy efficiency standards for homes have all been ways to push for Kyoto's goals without treaty approval.
The environmentalists' real goal is clear, though. They want to redistribute wealth and punish developed nations for ''excessive'' energy use.
It's been said that a socialist thrown out of the window will come back in through the door as an environmentalist. Kyoto treaty supporters confirm that notion. Luckily, the Senate is made up mostly of realists - not idealists.
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