Fitting: Creationist Institute backs new highway spending

You just can't make this stuff up. Two writers for the creationist "Discovery Institute" in Seattle uses a variety of faith-based "arguments" for backing the $4.2 billion boondoggle on the Columbia, a massive plan to increase greenhouse gas emissions and bankrupt transportation budgets in two states -- even as rising gas prices are already working to eliminate congestion.

Better yet, the two suggest ignoring that the project directly undermines Oregon's statutory commitment to reducing greenhouse emissions. They suggest continuing business as usual while we wait for a miracle solution to the problem:

Control of man-made greenhouse gas emissions in the Northwest will best come from a comprehensive North American carbon tax. Regional pacts or too-easily-gamed cap-and-trade schemes are destined to fail. FedEx CEO Frederick Smith was on target earlier this month, when he told a Google.org and Brookings Institution forum that the best public policy to combat global warming is a gradually phased-in carbon tax that will change habits of energy consumption and yield monies that can compensate for accompanying reductions in Social Security payroll taxes on employees. Employers, employees and the environment all would benefit.

In other words, although the supposedly greenest corner of the country is not supposed to actually make any greenhouse gas reductions---and is instead supposed to squander billions to promote increased highway usage---we can expect a miraculous continent-wide tax that will address the climate crisis. No wonder these guys write for a creationist outfit --- they expect miracles daily.