Story Created:
Feb 5, 2009 at 11:41 AM AKDT
Story Updated:
Feb 5, 2009 at 11:41 AM AKDT
Debate over global warming is apparently not allowed, at least at the state level.
That is according to the research of a conservative think tank that is presenting its findings today.
At issue is the state's contract with a group called The Center for Climate Strategies. The group has been spear-heading global warming policy across the U.S. by bypassing state legislatures.
Once a governor commissions a climate change panel, usually by executive order as Governor Palin did in 2007, the Center for Climate Strategies comes in and offers to take over according to investigative journalist Paul Chesser.
The group offers to set up meetings and infrastructure to come up with global warming strategies and to serve as the state's climate commission management team. The group even offers to provide some funding, a half-million dollars for each state, provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and other environmental groups.
In spite of that, the state is paying the group $180,000 for its services.
The state's contract with the group says there can be no debate over the science of climate change in any of its meetings.
Once the group goes through the process of a series of meetings it makes recommendations to state lawmakers. Chesser says one of the problems is that this group makes the same recommendations in every state in which it is working. "What they do is they typically come out with about 50 or so policy recommendations out of these climate commissions, it's always that number." says Cheeser who goes on to say, "It's a cookie cutter process basically. It's all the same things and it's all things that will raise the cost of energy, fossil fuel use, raise the cost of gasoline."
Chesser will be presenting his findings today to the Resource Development Council. The Governor's Climate Change Panel is all meeting today in Anchorage.
