Some suggestions for reducing carbon dioxide emissions

Many are complaining, and rightly so, about the fact that the EPA is claiming the right (in a legally dubious manner) to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, water, and methane. While I am of course leery of the prospect of government control of energy use, there are some very real things that the goverment could do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

1. Abandon NAFTA and GATT (they aren't about free trade anyways), implement a 10% duty on all goods entering the country, and slash income taxes. Let people see the cost of government in what they buy instead of what they earn, and see what happens to consumption--and fuel used to consume.

2. Enforce border laws. All those illegal immigrants burn a lot of fuel, you know.

3. End daycare subsidies and tax breaks and see how many middle class moms stop commuting.

4. Allow oil exploration off our coasts and in ANWR and eliminate much Middle Eastern fuel. It takes a lot less fuel to get a tanker to go 1000 miles than it does for the same tanker to go 10,000 miles.

5. End transit subsidies. The most efficient means, the diesel bus, pollutes just as much as if you'd bought a Powerstroke F250 for every rider.

6. End urban "redevelopment" schemes and let people commute to where they actually want to work.

7. Stop subsidizing grain and ethanol, and let farmers use all that land for its best use; pasture. Watch exports soar as the world realizes that U.S. cattle are not eating genetically modified corn and chicken manure anymore.

8. Stop subsidizing air travel and Amtrak. Watch the executive looking at a much larger travel cost to China or elsewhere consider a facility closer to home.

9. Stop federally guaranteed student loans and watch colleges close energy-inefficient dorms. Also watch as methane emissions from students plastered on "Milwaukee's Beast" decline drastically.

10. Force Congress and the President to ride in CAFE compliant cars and ride coach.

I won't be holding my breath, but I can dream, can't I?