Happy Earth Day!

The good news, from Think Progress, is data showing that efforts to reduce carbon emissions do not harm the economy; to the contrary, they may help.

The chart, by Environment New Jersey, compares the 9 northeastern states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to the rest of the states in measures of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (dark blue) and economic growth (light blue) between 2000 and 2009; pollution reduction is 20% better, but growth is twice as good:

The Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity actually claimed that RGGI would drive [electricity] rates up in New Jersey by 90%. And New Jersey Governor Chris Christie pulled his state out of the program, calling it a “gimmicky tax."

But in point of fact

The program has helped stimulate more efficiency and renewable energy, it has helped local businesses grow, it has added enormous economic value to the region, and it has not driven up electric rates....  According to program administrators, proceeds from carbon credit auctions brought $29 million to New Jersey in 2010, leveraging $3 to $4 in benefits for every dollar invested.

Not that the facts would matter to Christie in particular, would they? For instance, now that it's clear he was lying about the costs of the ARC railroad tunnel under the Hudson when he shut down the project (even though, he said, he believed in its merits), what does he do? Bluffs some more, of course:

“So when they want to build a tunnel to the basement of Macy’s, and stick the New Jersey taxpayers with a bill of three-to-five billion dollars over — no matter how much the administration yells and screams, you have to say no,” he said in a speech at a conference on taxes and the economy in Manhattan held by the George W. Bush Institute.

“You have to look them right in the eye, no matter how much they try to vilify you for it, and you have to say no,” the governor told an audience that included Mr. Bush, Karl Rove and other prominent Republicans and business executives. “You have to be willing to say no to those things that compromise your principles.”

And "he did not directly mention the report or address its specifics."

It's all about something bigger than reality, you see, it's about Governor Christie's "principles", whose truth is so transcendent that it's OK to lie in their defense.*

Also in good news, it's raining in the Northeast! It was starting to look like a drought. 

*It's interesting how conservatives are always accusing somebody else of doing this. As I've mentioned before, there is a kind of direct progression between the original Know-Nothings, who feared the Jesuits and their permission from God to slant the truth with a "mental reservation", and those of today, who fear Muslims and their doctrine of taqiyya. As the Sadlys always remind us, IT'S ALWAYS PROJECTION.