Europe's Carbon Mafia, And Ours

moneyInvestors Business Daily Editorial

Corruption: The carbon trading system being pushed here has spawned crime and fraud across the pond. Cap-and-trade is not about saving the planet. It’s about money and power, and absolute power corrupting absolutely.

All across Europe authorities have been conducting raids, rounding up individuals involved in a new version of Climate-gate. This time the data aren’t corrupted. Europe’s Emissions Trading System is. The system is so sick, it’s turned out to be a scam built upon a scam.

Twenty-five people have been arrested in raids by British and German authorities as part of a pan-European crackdown on carbon credit VAT tax fraud.

U.K. officials announced raids on 81 offices and homes, nabbing 13 people in England and eight in Scotland. The operation involved 450 investigators from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs office.

German authorities raided 230 locations, including the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and the offices of RWE, one of the largest energy firms in Europe. The German operation involved 1,000 investigators targeting 50 companies and 150 suspects.

The amount of money involved in carbon trading is huge and the temptations vast. While our Congress demagogues about banks and their “complex financial instruments,” they are simple compared to cap-and-trade, which as we have noted involves essentially the buying and selling of air. Throw in an oppressive value-added tax and you have a recipe for corruption and fraud.

Last December, Europol, the European criminal intelligence agency, announced that Emissions Trading System fraud had resulted in about 5 billion euros in lost revenues as Europe’s carbon traders schemed to avoid paying Europe’s VAT and pocket the difference. In announcing the raids, the agency said that as much as 90% of Europe’s carbon trades were the result of fraudulent activity.

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48 Responses to Europe's Carbon Mafia, And Ours

  1. Neil F. AGWD/BSD May 11, 2010 at 8:21 pm #

    I am wondering if Gordon Brown’s resignation was related in any way to this.

  2. Hal Groar May 11, 2010 at 8:47 pm #

    I don’t know about Brown, but if his name surfaces I would laugh like a stuck pig! I had a young lady come to my door tonight asking for money for a environmental cause, clean water action.org I think it was. I told her I would look it up on the net and let her know. Turns out they are for this cap and trade scam. I am torn between throwing the brochure away or signing up for the news letter, just to keep an eye on them. I don’t think I want to waste my time on them. Tempting though.

    • Neil F. AGWD/BSD May 11, 2010 at 9:32 pm #

      Were you suprised at all?

      • Neil F. AGWD/BSD May 11, 2010 at 9:34 pm #

        Sorry, it’s surprised. I don’t know y I alwys spel that wurd rong!!!!!

  3. paul wenum May 11, 2010 at 8:53 pm #

    And our illustrious President wants to pass Cap N Trade. (1) trillion in additional expense. What’s another? we have 12 Trillion already. Nothing new my friends.

  4. Cubanshamoo May 12, 2010 at 5:49 am #

    It remeber me the case of Enron (deceived later by Bill Clinton), because RWE is the equivalent of Enron in Europe, but only lobbying on eco-energies since 5, to 10 years. A couple of huge left-managed corporations that may result very inconvenient to Rob to remember.

  5. paul wenum May 12, 2010 at 10:29 pm #

    Did they check Gore’s house? Just wondering.

  6. Rob N. Hood May 13, 2010 at 2:31 pm #

    Enron’s CEO was W’s buddy NOT Clinton’s.

    • Neil F. AGWD/BSD May 13, 2010 at 8:43 pm #

      Your fixation on Bush is not healthy.

  7. paul wenum May 13, 2010 at 7:40 pm #

    By the way he’s dead. Get back on the subject at hand. Gore is sitting back with that gleam in his eye looking at all the carbon credits he can sell to us “low income” people. Don’t ever say you were not warned.

    • Rob N. Hood May 14, 2010 at 7:49 am #

      I was merely correcting a biased comment. Nothing more nothing less. Touchy touchy aren’t we…?

  8. cubanshamoo May 14, 2010 at 12:13 am #

    Rob, a little lesson of your on country. Enron was a Giant American energy company linked to democrats and Global Warming since 1988. Investing in Natural Gas (Russia) after the fisrt appearance of Hansen in the Congress. From 1993 when Al Gore became VP Enron became for the democrats their first “Green Business Model”. Senators John Heinz and Tim Wirth co-sponsored “Project 88” which later became the 1990 Clean Air Act. Everyone knows that without Enron there were no Kyoto Protocol. When EPA put a cap to how many pollutants a fossil-fuel plant could emit, Enron make billions (20 per year) with their pipe-line networks and the help of Gore. From that years (1993) Enron was pressing (there is a disclassified letter around) the WH to declare CO2 as polluant. The new appointee of Clinton (not Bush) was Wirth, a democrat from Colorado who worke with Gore in all climate issues and who was a very good friend of Ken Lay (the Boss of Enron). They proposed soon to the WH the first idea of carbon credits. From 1994 to 1993 Enron lobby Nature Conservancy with one million dollars and there Global Warming theories initiate “scientifically”. Among the bedfellows of Enron to start mongering on Global Warming you can find Heinz Foundation (a company that give 8 millions every year as present to Castro regime via the wife of a vietnam vet cowrard) and Pew Center. In 1998 (Sept 1) a letter signed by Ken Lay begged Clinton administration to harm the reputation of any scientist who argued Global Warming. The letter ask Clinto to shut off the public debate on GW by creating a Blue Ribbon Commission (billed as “educational Commission” for the descredit of any scientist challenging GW as Scientific American did with Lomborg by suggestions from that commission. Internal data from Enron shows that in 1997 the meeting at the WH has only one agenda: that USA sign Kyoto. If the above is not enough, just let me know to show you here, in this forum, that you are an ignorant-easy to manipulate and bad informed medium IQ leftist American.

  9. Rob N. Hood May 14, 2010 at 7:52 am #

    Wow. I now believe that ALL Liberals are evil and the Repubs are angels sent from heaven to save humanity from the Liberal devils. Not.

    Your revisionist history lesson about MY country is quite amusing.

    It is MY premise that 99% of all Repubs and ALL Dems are crooks. So you can go on loving up the Repubs if you want to but you are simple-minded to do so.

  10. cubanshamoo May 14, 2010 at 8:59 am #

    Facts Robby facts. Leftist and extremely corrupted corporations exist and are the real danger to USA economy, but you only believe that companies are the evil of Republican-rich class, like a subproduct of an ideology. You need a doctor.

  11. Rob N. Hood May 14, 2010 at 11:22 am #

    Ummm…. you didn’t actually read what I just posted apparently…. try harder.

    For thirty years, the Chicago School of Economics promoted Wall Street deregulation by insisting that markets were inherently self-regulating and, no matter how severe the setback, markets would quickly return to equilibrium. This conservative theory touted “efficiency,” “productivity,” and “trickle-down equity” as the inevitable byproducts of laissez-faire capitalism. The result was a savage increase in monopoly capitalism, increasing inequality, and the loss of eight million jobs- not to mention the current Dep/Recession.

    Blind faith and belief that “the market” will solve all our problems derive from a core magical belief: what is good for capitalism is good for America. It’s easy to poke holes in this belief – by for example, noting that unbridled capitalism utilizes slave labor and condones obscene pollution – but it has an ironclad grip on the American psyche. This is an example of the Fallacy of Accident, a naivete that lets crooks like Alan Greenspan off the hook.

    Magical thinking would be of only academic interest if it did not have such a profound affect on public policy. Naïve faith in the “free-market” and the “self-correcting” marketplace led to deregulation and, ultimately, horrendous disasters. Now America is facing difficult choices about issues such as deficit reduction and energy. Widespread use of magical thinking could preclude wise decisions.

    Most Americans are worried about the deficit. But they also want their taxes to be reduced. When asked the best way to both reduce the deficit and cut taxes, they typically answer reduce wasteful government programs. Magical thinking believes this is plausible and uses miniscule examples of ill-conceived Federal programs to support an unwarranted generalization: all government programs are wasteful.

    But they’re not. Roughly 46 percent of budget goes to military-related spending that most Americans don’t want to reduce. Another 39 percent goes to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs that most Americans support. That leaves approximately 15 percent of expenditures that could theoretically be reduced. But this includes items like the interest on the debt and homeland security, programs that Americans support once they understand the details. As was true in the meltdown of the financial system and the BP oil leak, magical thinking will not allow the US to both reduce the deficit and taxes. The solution to the deficit problem is to raise taxes for corporations and the rich.

  12. Neil F. AGWD/BSD May 14, 2010 at 8:33 pm #

    Which is it Rob? Are we RWA’s, or are we some kind of deregulation demons? I mean it just doesn’t seem like an authoritarian would be all about deregulating things, does it? In fact that seems quite the opposite of authoritarian. This represents a huge flaw in your thinking, I think. I guess that’s what happens when you blame everything on Republicans, and Conservatives. Hmmmm….

    • Rob N. Hood May 15, 2010 at 3:49 pm #

      Sorry Neil- but those concepts are not mutually exclusive. It is admittedly counter-intuitive, but it has been occurring in this country since Reagun, maybe even before, so reality is what it is. Once again you are using simplistic black and white thinking. Time to grow up and use your adult mind.

      The authoritarians are all for de-regulation as long as it benfits them. If you would notice, that is exactly what it does. Other areas they are very authoritarian. The world is not a simple Disney-fied place.

      • Neil F. AGWD/BSD May 15, 2010 at 7:17 pm #

        Sorry Rob that don’t cut it. Lets look at some definitions here.

        Authoritarian:
        1. Characterized by or favoring absolute obedience to authority, as against individual freedom: an authoritarian regime.
        2. Of, relating to, or expecting unquestioning obedience. See Synonyms at dictatorial.

        Deregulation:
        To free from regulation, especially to remove government regulations from: deregulate the airline industry.

        With your gray thinking, I guess words just mean whatever you want them to mean.
        But, in the world of absolutes, and black and white thinking, words have meanings that are unequivocal. So, in reality these words are mutually exclusive, and one exemplifies the opposite meaning of the other and can not exist together in the same philosophy.
        Oh, and how adult is it to refer to former President Reagan as Reagun?

        • Rob N. Hood May 15, 2010 at 7:51 pm #

          It is genuinely amazing to me that an adult can respond to not only two concepts that do not necessarily have to be mutually exclusive, argue that they are just based upon somebodies definition of the WORDS- not to mention the REALITY of it occurring daily, for decades basically, in the person’s own country.

          To then write the words “absolute” and “unequivocal” as if it was some kind of religion or game of some kind, when REALITY is anything but…! You guys argue that ALL the time here, and yet, when it suits you, you throw that card down like it means something.

          It’s a mind blower, that’s for sure. It does help me to understand, I guess, in some way at least, the type of thinking process that emanates from the Right. I always knew the difference between Right and Left thinking was significant, and can be seen in all cultures in one form or another. But I still don’t understand it, really. As I’ve theorized before it must be a right/left brain effect, one side or the other being dominant in humans, resulting in a dichotomy of discerning reality.

          • Neil F. AGWD/BSD May 15, 2010 at 10:07 pm #

            So, what you’re saying is that the words don’t mean what they mean? Or they mean whatever your interperetation of them mean?
            My point is that what you are posting about Right wing people is that we are right wing authoritarians who have ruined the economy by deregulating the banking/financial industry. All that I am saying is that deregulation is not the way of an authoritarian, and visa versa. What you are saying is that we are both.
            Authoritarians would regulate the banking/finacial industry with rules that would favor themselves. Why would an authoritarian deregulate? It is a fair question given the definitions of the words. I am not conceeding that either is what is happening in reality, I am saying that if you are one, you are not the other, and visa versa. And if what you are saying is what is happening then it is something else, and not either one of the two ways of thinking.
            Do you see what I mean? Is that a childish, immature point?
            You’re problem is that you can not see that there is some thought behind what I am saying and you dismiss it out of hand because you believe you have a monopoly on thought, and truth. You do not. And batting away my point by calling it childish illustrates your rigidity of theory.
            And it is not “sombodies” definition of words. Word definitions are ultimately about common usage.
            What it boils down to Rob is that you accuse the Right of being authoritarians, then you say that they caused our current finacial problems by deregulating the banking/financial industry. Do you not see the discord in that? I think you are so blinded by your ideology that you ignore the discord because it is true if you read it on a leftist socialist blog.

  13. paul wenum May 14, 2010 at 11:40 pm #

    Cubanshammo/Neil, Can you believe what you just read from Rob? All I know is Rob’s comments are getting surreal to be nice. “Houston” reality left “we have a problem.” I don’t know what else to say. I’m baffled. By the way, Cubanshammo, Neil, keep it up!!!!

  14. Rob N. Hood May 15, 2010 at 5:11 pm #

    Remember this Three Stooges routine?:

    “I can’t see! I can’t see!”
    “Why not kid?”
    “I’ve got my eyes closed”

  15. paul wenum May 15, 2010 at 9:14 pm #

    I see yours are still closed my friend as well as your ears. Do you hear it? It’s coming. November 2010. That sais, hope that a rational person, he or she is available. As of today, I really don’t know nor does the average American.

  16. Rob N. Hood May 16, 2010 at 7:24 pm #

    It’s irrational to want to put back into control the very party/people that got us into the mess we are in now. Granted both parties are about the same, bad that is- and corporate controlled. But your “problem-solving” is irrational and illogical.

    You are among the majority of Americans, moreor less, who are still being successfully brainwashed by the MSM with the belief that the general public has any power over anything, except perhaps the most minute of local matters- and even those are now “controlled” due to lack of adequate funding. It’s all part of the Conservative master plan to starve the public sector, squeeze the middle and lower classes so they fight each other, all to the benefit of the One Percenters.

    Their plan is coming along just fine… Even Obama’s on board, as was Clinton (and all Republicans of course).

    So you are getting what you want, what you voted for, but I haven’t, ever. I would think you Rightys would be a little happier about all that. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot- you’re brainwashed. You haven’t been programmed to be happy yet. And you never will.

  17. paul wenum May 16, 2010 at 11:19 pm #

    I’m will never ” Be Happy” until I see a “True Republic” that we have been sorely lacking since 1965.

  18. Rob N. Hood May 17, 2010 at 7:09 am #

    What happened in 1965 to change that?

  19. paul wenum May 17, 2010 at 9:27 pm #

    What started in 1965 is what we see today. Suggest that you read history my friend. The entitlements have been growing thereafter.

  20. Cubanshamoo May 18, 2010 at 4:06 am #

    I have been trying to participate again and again, but all my posts are blocked. Have a nice time guys and teach Rob as much as you can.

  21. Rob N. Hood May 20, 2010 at 7:40 am #

    Ahhh… the “entitlements”….The Horror!!!! Yes, such a horrible thing that, eh??!! Retirement with dignity, no old people starving in the streets, no children starving and having to work for pennies a day instead of going to those brainwashing socailist schools!!! What about the New Deal Paul??? You must certianly dislike that whole thing right?? I mean really, that opened the door for all these extreme Leftist regimes we’ve been burdened with. Time for revolution eh? So what revolutionary thing are you planning?? You gonna vote Libertarian? Wow, that’s gonna help…

  22. Rob N. Hood May 20, 2010 at 3:51 pm #

    Let me be perfectly clear for those unable to read closely. Bipartisanship in this country has never been anything more than a myth, but we’re rapidly approaching the point of another civil war, only this time it will be about class more than race.

    Should he choose to accept it, this is a chance for this President to grow his agenda in a direction that is not only more likely to win him reelection in two years but, more importantly, one that will protect and defend labor, as well as safeguard those constitutional protections we still have left like a woman’s right to choose, the Fourth and the Fourteenth Amendment which guarantee due process, and suffrage.

    Whatever moderates there are left in the Republican Party are now hiding under their desks in fear of what the radical right wingnuts might be cooking up next.

    After all, it was another right wingnut, Barry Goldwater, who laid the groundwork for the insanity that is trying to pass itself off as law in Arizona, and everybody knows who Barry Goldwater’s biggest fan was–George W. Bush. How many more Goldwater moments can this country afford?

  23. paul wenum May 20, 2010 at 9:09 pm #

    Yes, “Horror” is the word with entitlements when everyone expects a handout without any work involved. Did you see the Dow today? That was your retirement absent entitlements. With entitlements, who cares?? I retire on my neighbor anyway!! Let he or she take the hit and pay my way. That my friend is becoming the “American Way.” You, my neighbor earn it, I will take it! As to “wingnuts,?”, look at the present administration, not the 60’s.

  24. Rob N. Hood May 21, 2010 at 7:10 am #

    I, sir, did not wreck the DOW, nor did any other poor schlub.

  25. Rob N. Hood May 21, 2010 at 3:06 pm #

    Paul- Your biases and lack of real knowledge are breathtaking.

  26. paul wenum May 21, 2010 at 11:18 pm #

    No, your mind-set did. Lack of knowledge? Talking to someone with no knowledge is a “waste of time.” There will be discussion when you know not for which you speak.

  27. Rob N. Hood May 22, 2010 at 7:47 am #

    More news pertaining to The Worst Democrat Everâ„¢:

    “The Obama Administration’s move to the right is about to give conservatives a victory they could not have anticipated, even under Bush. HUD, under Obama, submitted legislation called PETRA to Congress that would result in the privatization of all public housing in America.”

    Next up? Privatizing Soc Sec…? Only a “Dem” could get away with that crime… just like Clinton reforming “welfare.” We are living with one oligarchy maquerading as a two party system. The once great USA is circling the drain.

    And all you guys can come up with is that he is a raving Maoist Communist. Reality check…. anybody in there??

  28. paul wenum May 24, 2010 at 9:33 pm #

    We are here, we just have no response. Ranting is fine if it has substance. Hot air is cheap. Love Popcorn.

  29. Rob N. Hood May 25, 2010 at 6:59 am #

    Currently, about half of our eligible electorate doesn’t vote, and it isn’t all apathy. We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to vote against our own interests any more. Of the other half of the electorate, the half that still votes, more of them (38%) identify as Independents, or third party voters, than as either Democrats or Republicans.

    A recent Rasmussen Reports poll of voters found that no matter their party affiliation or lack of same, only 21% of voters say that the U.S. government has the consent of the governed.

    The only thing that the political parties can’t fully manipulate is turnout. In Cuba, when Batista held an election and fewer than 10% of Cubans voted, he knew that he lacked the consent of the governed and he fled the island. In South Africa, when the Apartheid regime held an election and only 7% of South Africans voted, it was obvious to the world that it lacked the consent of the governed and it soon began making concessions. In Haiti when they held an election and only 3% of the population voted, it was clear to everyone in the world that the military regime we installed after we kidnapped their President, lacks the consent of the governed. A regime that lacks the consent of the governed can still rule by force, but it cannot claim the legitimacy that our Declaration of Independence so wisely noted can derive only from the consent of the governed.

    The unpopular and illegitimate regimes of the world that rule by means of deception or violence, understand the precarious nature of their reigns. The wealthy oligarchs that comprise such governments all maintain residences in foreign countries, offshore bank accounts, and keep their bags packed and their private jets and helicopters at the ready, so that when the moment comes that they have to sneak (or be smuggled) out the back door to escape the wrath of the citizens they’ve bilked, they’ll be able to flee. And all such illegitimate oligarchies offer safe haven to other oligarchs, because they never know when their own moment will come. Wealthy oligarchs are well educated people, fully familiar with the rise and fall of empires in human history, and they do not leave matters of their personal survival and safety to chance. None wish to be dragged through the streets by an angry populace. And according to that same Rasmussen Reports survey that I mentioned above, 75% of voters (voters are the half of our electorate that isn’t yet angry enough to stop voting), told the pollsters that they are angry at the policies of the federal government.

    When you vote, you are delegating your authority and granting your power to whoever wins the election–in effect saying that, although I may not have voted for them, I have enough faith in the system to consent to allow whoever wins the election to govern me. That’s the part that people like Paul don’t yet comprehend.

  30. paul wenum May 25, 2010 at 7:06 pm #

    That’s why we have checks and balances in our government versus others.

  31. Rob N. Hood May 27, 2010 at 2:21 pm #

    Maybe we used to- we don’t now. THAT’s the problem!!!!!!!!!

  32. paul wenum May 27, 2010 at 10:11 pm #

    We still do my friend. It must be used more often.

  33. Rob N. Hood May 29, 2010 at 8:06 pm #

    That makes no sense. How do you propose “we” do that? And don’t say “vote” cuz that ain’t a solution to the mess we are in.

  34. paul wenum May 30, 2010 at 12:38 am #

    Ad nauseam, yes it is called “Voting.” Absent the rule of law that President Clinton dodged, what do you suggest? (That, by the way, goes for ALL Presidents.)
    The real problem is people like you and your age with a mind-set that “it does not matter.” Trust me, I’ve had this discussion for years with the younger generation. My children included. 95% don’t even know their candidates position, the party, other than they “look better” than the other and “They tell me what I want to hear.” With no details if you ask the “VOTERS.” Man. Think I should retire to New Zealand where they think and don’t sit and watch “reality TV” as if that’s life. Sad days are coming unles you younger people, the new generation that will carry the debt load for me and others changes your mind-set. Unfortunately, I highly doubt it but I’ve bee proven wrong in the past. Please prove me wrong for you generation.

  35. Rob N. Hood May 30, 2010 at 12:34 pm #

    So Clinton dodged the rule of law? Hilarious… Aren’t you the one who criticizes me for bringing up the past? (yes, all the time). And isn’t what goes on between two consenting adults a bit personal for a freedom lover like yourself??? Nevermind- once a hypocrite always a hypocrite I guess.

    And ad naseum I am not young- I wish. And I KNOW sad days are coming- in fact they arrived Big Time over 8 years ago, and continue still. Why? Because we are ruled by crooks and liars, and have been for decades. I think those younger than you realize that.

  36. paul wenum May 30, 2010 at 11:26 pm #

    They don’t know because they “Don’t know.” I’ve been told “It doesn’t matter.” That is the sad part. Like Leno’s talks to the people on the street. I see this in young people all the time. Ignorant as hell on any issue that will effect them financially short/long term but total recall of all the actors/actresses birthdays, etc. Boy is that a sad state of affairs that we are in?

  37. Rob N. Hood May 31, 2010 at 2:33 pm #

    They have plenty of time to grow older, and to get mad about what a crappy job we did with their country. The powers that be want and need ignorance. Look at how all dictatorships work. Ignorance of the populace is key. No different here…

  38. paul wenum June 3, 2010 at 11:40 pm #

    May I ask you a question. Who are their Mentors? they can grow old with no purpose other than to exist. Or they can pass on their vision, idea’s and passion in their beliefs onto others. Only then will they find true purpose. Who, by the way, is your Mentor? Simply curious.

  39. Rob N. Hood June 12, 2010 at 7:48 am #

    Their mentors? Xbox, PStation, MSM, MIC, TV, professional althletes, and the filthy rich. Their parents are busy working two or three jobs. And It Doesn’t Matter- they are CORRECT about that. Remember your slogan? “Nothing changes”. That is the ONLY thing you are correct about Paul and yet you even forget your own slogan. My mentors? Jesus, Ghandi, MLK, JFK, RFK, to name a few. Not necessarily in that order. Anymore quesitons?

  40. paul wenum June 15, 2010 at 9:28 pm #

    Discount one, the “filthy rich.” Other than that I agree with “Their Mentors.” People today are so wired they sometimes, not always, miss reality. By they way, where are the parents? Oops, forgot, they work two/three jobs etc. and don’t have “Time.” (Not you Rob) To me that is an excuse. My folks made time and they were my “Mentors.”

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