Yesterday - we talked about the CJ article that a large number Kentuckians (LGE & KU customers) can expect to pay an additional 14-24% on their utility bills as a result of the global warming regulation passed by the House of Representatives.

While we haven't been able to find an updated report on just how much CO2 the Waxman-Markey bill is supposed to theoretically prevent from getting into earth's atmosphere, we're thinking that a report of the Lieberman-Warner legislation - the central 'global warming' legislation from last Congress - will serve as an instructive lesson in what Kentuckian's can expect they'll get for their money.

According to the Energy Information Administration (an agency of the federal Department of Energy) employing a “cap-and-trade” mechanism, Lieberman-Warner would have reduced carbon emissions from electric utilities by 678 million metric tons by 2020. That appears to be a big number until one considers that it amounts to less than ten percent of what total U.S. man-made emissions would have been without the legislation, is less than 1% of annual worldwide emissions (see volcanoes and livestock below) and is the equivalent of removing a handful of sand from the beach when compared to the 3,000 gigatons (3.0 x 10¹⁵) of carbon dioxide already in Earth’s atmosphere.

Forty percent of the world’s carbon dioxide is emitted from volcanic eruptions. According to the United Nations livestock are responsible for 18 percent of total of greenhouse gases – more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.

Gas prices will go up by 34 cents a gallon by 2030 and, according to the Energy Information Administration, “impacts on real consumption, a direct indicator of the economic welfare of American consumers, (is) 0.4 percent lower.”

So - LGE is happy that it will only costs their customers an additional $20 a month to do their part to avert environmental catastrophe. 

To LGE/KU Customers: what if you were told that you needed you to pay LGE $20 a month to keep them from pouring a thimble full of water into the Ohio River or else there might be horrific floods in the Ohio River Valley - what would you do? Don't worry - imagine they'd understand it when you laughed in their face.