For Immediate Release – March 19, 2008
Contact: Mark Block (414) 475-2975

MADISON – Just hours before the Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming is set to hold its first public hearing, respected civil rights leader Roy Innis, Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, spoke at an Americans for Prosperity (AFP) news conference on the harm global warming policies pose to minorities by driving up the cost and availability of energy. AFP Wisconsin Director Mark Block also delivered comments at the event, announcing the watchdog group’s plan to monitor the Task Force and point out the economic consequences of policies that emerge from its findings.

“We are slowly destroying the energy system we have, and we are promoting an expensive, environmentally harmful, illusory energy system that exists only in theory and environmental rhetoric,” said Innis. “Worst of all, we are harming our poorest families; we are rolling back the civil rights we struggled so long and hard to achieve; and we are sending many minorities to the back of the energy and economic bus. This must not, and cannot continue.”

Block thanked Innis for highlighting the dangerous trend toward eco-imperialism that runs rampant through global warming policy-making. “There is a very real dark side to ‘feel good’ global warming policies,” said Block. “We think citizens need to understand the true costs of climate change schemes that strip away our freedoms and impose huge taxes and onerous regulations on energy.”

Block pointed to a new study by economist Margo Thorning of the American Council for Capital Formation that shows Wisconsin gas prices would increase as much as 141 percent under the Lieberman-Warner bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and electricity bills could increase as much as 177 percent. “Very conservatively, the economic research shows that we’re facing at least a 72 percent increase in gas prices and a 126 percent increase in utility rates if a federal cap-and-trade regime is established – and  those numbers don’t take into account state-level policies,” said Block.

Roy Innis is National Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, one of America’s oldest and most respected civil rights groups. He is a life-long advocate of economic development rights for poor families and communities around the world. Roy Innis has also become an icon of economic civil rights: the power and legitimacy of self-reliance and independence. Mr. Innis will deliver testimony later today at the 4:00 p.m. meeting of the Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming.

“American free enterprise is under attack by those who wish to use the guise of global climate change to enact new regulations and higher taxes that will damage our economic prosperity,” Block concluded. “Already, warming is being used to justify all kinds of government interventions in the market – from the now-enacted federal incandescent light bulb ban, to California’s proposed radio-controlled thermostats, to tax penalties for larger homes, to lower speed limits and more mass transit. Our freedoms are being directly threatened along with our prosperity.”