Friday, December 30, 2011

Ron Paul Is Not a Racist

Nightly News for Thursday, December 29, 2011 Full Show

Strait of Hormuz standoff: Iran films US aircraft carrier


Iran claimed to have taken surveillance footage of a US aircraft carrier near the Strait of Hormuz as both countries raised the stakes in their standoff over the key oil route.

The commander of Iran's navy said the reconnaissance mission was proof that his fleet had "control over the moves by foreign forces" but it was unclear what intelligence could be derived from the grainy video, which was played triumphantly on state television.
Admiral Habibollah Sayyari's statement came as Iranian ships, helicopters and submarines continued a 10-day war game exercise designed to give credibility to the country's threat to close the Strait and choke off the world's oil supplies if the West moves ahead with sanctions.
The drill is underway in international waters near the Strait and only a few hundred miles from America's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet. The US Navy has vowed to prevent any closure of the channel, through which 15 million barrels of oil pass every day.

Food writer banned from taking homemade conserves with him on the plane


He was visiting Ireland to try and help small rural producers boost exports of their produce.
But British food and drink expert James Crowden found himself in a sticky situation at Dublin Airport - when security confiscated pots of homemade jam from his hand luggage.
And the irony was not lost on the award-winning author. ‘It was like a situation in a Flann O’Brien story,’ he told the Irish Daily Mail yesterday, referring to a series of satirical Irish novels.
‘I was over trying to help small rural producers and I couldn’t get out of the country with the stuff myself. It was ironic at the very least.’
Mr Crowden had been invited by Bord Bia to speak to apple growers and cider producers in Drogheda about the future of artisan cider-making.
He then visited Granard, Co. Longford, where he has ancestral roots, and purchased some jam.
‘I was in the Greville Arms and I bought three jars of jam: Apricot, plum and blackberry. They were going to be a present for my father, who himself is a very good jam-maker,’ Mr Crowden said.
The jams cost £2.10 each from a local producer based in the nearby Granard Country Market.
When he tried to leave the country the next day, his hand luggage was searched by security who seized the jam – which was in jars larger than regulations allow.
According to the Dublin Airport Authority website, ‘only liquids in containers of 100ml or less, fitting comfortably into a one litre transparent plastic bag (approximately 20cm x 20cm) when fully closed, are permitted’.
An indignant Mr Crowden said: ‘All I was told was that the container was wrong. I was surprised because the jam was very solid.
Staff at Dublin Airport confiscated the Irish-made jam
Security threat? Staff at Dublin Airport confiscated the Irish-made jam
Jars of jam sold by the maker from whom Mr Crowden bought his. Airport security said they weren't allowed to be taken on the plane
Jars of jam sold by the maker from whom Mr Crowden bought his. Airport security said they weren't allowed to be taken on the plane
‘They were supposed to be in 100ml containers but I was not given the option to change it, they were just taken.’
Solicitor Pól Ó’Murchú is calling for the jam to be returned.
He wrote in a letter to The Irish Times: ‘The jam was perfectly solid and was not a liquid. We are calling on the authorities to give a full explanation for their actions and return the jam to its rightful owner.
‘These regulations obviously have a detrimental effect, not only on the growth of Irish rural industry and country markets, but on tourism as well. Two vital ingredients to Ireland’s recovery.’
A spokesperson for Dublin Airport defended the decision to confiscate jam from Mr Crowden's luggage, claiming they were following EU regulations. 
Nicola Radford said: 'If an item is over 100ml and comes under the category of a "liquid, gel or paste" unfortunately that would fall under guidelines which would require us to ask the passenger to surrender it.
'We are not given the option to test an item, we are just asked to remove it from the passenger.
'We have no leeway in this and only follow standard EU regulations.
'Food stuffs like jam and mustard as well as make-up fall under the "gel or paste" category.
'We do feel for passengers but there is plenty of information on all airport's websites.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079827/Food-writer-trying-help-Ireland-boost-exports-banned-taking-homemade-produce-home-plane.html#ixzz1hzdkwWnw

Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts


The first ever GAO(Government Accountability Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill(HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out. Ben Bernanke(pictured to the left), Alan Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the effects an audit would have on markets. Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in the Federal Reserve’s nearly 100 year history were posted on Senator Sander’s webpage earlier this morning: http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3
What was revealed in the audit was startling: $16,000,000,000,000.00 had been secretly given out to US banks and corporations and foreign banks everywhere from France to Scotland. From the period between December 2007 and June 2010, the Federal Reserve had secretly bailed out many of the world’s banks, corporations, and governments. The Federal Reserve likes to refer to these secret bailouts as an all-inclusive loan program, but virtually none of the money has been returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest. Why the Federal Reserve had never been public about this or even informed the United States Congress about the $16 trillion dollar bailout is obvious — the American public would have been outraged to find out that the Federal Reserve bailed out foreign banks while Americans were struggling to find jobs.
To place $16 trillion into perspective, remember that GDP of the United States is only $14.12 trillion. The entire national debt of the United States government spanning its 200+ year history is “only” $14.5 trillion. The budget that is being debated so heavily in Congress and the Senate is “only” $3.5 trillion. Take all of the outrage and debate over the $1.5 trillion deficit into consideration, and swallow this Red pill: There was no debate about whether $16,000,000,000,000 would be given to failing banks and failing corporations around the world.
In late 2008, the TARP Bailout bill was passed and loans of $800 billion were given to failing banks and companies. That was a blatant lie considering the fact that Goldman Sachs alone received 814 billion dollars. As is turns out, the Federal Reserve donated $2.5 trillion to Citigroup, while Morgan Stanley received $2.04 trillion. The Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank, a German bank, split about a trillion and numerous other banks received hefty chunks of the $16 trillion.
“This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else.” – Bernie Sanders(I-VT)
When you have conservative Republican stalwarts like Jim DeMint(R-SC) and Ron Paul(R-TX) as well as self identified Democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders all fighting against the Federal Reserve, you know that it is no longer an issue of Right versus Left. When you have every single member of the Republican Party in Congress and progressive Congressmen like Dennis Kucinich sponsoring a bill to audit the Federal Reserve, you realize that the Federal Reserve is an entity onto itself, which has no oversight and no accountability.
Americans should be swelled with anger and outrage at the abysmal state of affairs when an unelected group of bankers can create money out of thin air and give it out to megabanks and supercorporations like Halloween candy. If the Federal Reserve and the bankers who control it believe that they can continue to devalue the savings of Americans and continue to destroy the US economy, they will have to face the realization that their trillion dollar printing presses will eventually plunder the world economy.
The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve can be found on page 131 of the GAO Audit and are as follows..
Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
and many many more including banks in Belgium of all places
View the 266-page GAO audit of the Federal Reserve(July 21st, 2011):http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation

New 9/11 Timeline Entries: Nuclear War Exercise on 9/11, NORAD Commanders’ Delayed Response to Attacks, Increase in Military Alert Status, and More


Filed under: Complete 911 Timeline — Matt @ 6:40 am 
Tags: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Numerous new entries have been added to the Complete 9/11 Timeline at History Commons, many of which deal with the US military’s actions around the time of–and in response to–the 9/11 attacks, while other new entries provide important information about the military’s responses to suspicious aircraft prior to 9/11.
New timeline entries describe how NORAD–the military organization responsible for defending US airspace–regularly launched fighter jets in response to suspicious aircraft in the years before 9/11, with fighters able to take off within minutes of a scramble order.
Other new entries describe a large Russian military exercise that began the day before 9/11 and was monitored by NORAD fighters that were deployed to Alaska and Northern Canada. The Russians promptly called off their exercise in response to the attacks in the US on September 11. As well as monitoring this Russian exercise, on September 11, personnel at the NORAD operations center in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, were participating in the annual training exercise Vigilant Guardian, which has been described as a “full-blown nuclear war” exercise.
New timeline entries also examine in detail the actions on September 11 of two key NORAD officials: Robert Marr, the battle commander at NORAD’s Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), and Larry Arnold, the commander of the Continental United States NORAD Region (CONR). After these two men spoke over the phone about the day’s exercise, Arnold joined a teleconference with other NORAD officials. This, however, meant he was unavailable when Marr tried calling him to get authorization to launch fighters in response to the hijacked Flight 11. After leaving the teleconference, Arnold learned of Marr’s call but wondered if the report of a hijacking was part of the exercise. Arnold soon called Marr back and told him to go ahead and launch fighters in response to the hijacking.
Arnold then called the NORAD operations center about the hijacking and the request for fighters. However, when operations center personnel saw television reports about the first crash at the World Trade Center, minutes later, they did not realize it involved the hijacked plane they’d just been alerted to. The operations center was in fact in an “information void” during the course of the attacks, according to officers there that day. It was also receiving many reports of hijackings from the FAA that turned out to be incorrect.
Other timeline entries describe how the US military was placed on an increased state of alert on September 11. Following the terrorist attacks, installations around the world were placed on the highest state of alert, known as Force Protection Condition Delta (FPCON Delta). Soon after that, the defense readiness condition was raised to Defcon 3, the highest level since 1973. News of the increased defense readiness condition was soon communicated within NORAD, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld notified President Bush of the raised threat level. The military stayed at Defcon 3 until September 14, when the defense readiness condition was lowered one notch, to Defcon 4.

Halliburton charged with selling nuclear technology to Iran

Poor American Fighting The New World Order blog #2 12/29/11

Well I made it to day 2.

This will be short tonight considering Im exhausted. I did the Oklahoma City radio special tonight with my good friends Kerry Corn and LJC3000 on Truthradionet.com The player is in the side of this blog if you want to listen. Link is here


I spent today again in the parks with my daughter soaking up the last days of the vacation before she goes back to school and I go back to work.

I felt energized today going over the information for my show listening to the interviews and the mountain of evidence proving the government staged the Oklahoma City bombing.

Was an honor to have a lot of people show up to listen and chat. Some days I truly feel blessed to know such great patriots whom I have come to know over the last 2-3 years.

I think I should try and do more focused shows on specific topics. I used to just rant and rave when people are seeking key information.

I hope to have some more videos up soon also.

This is one of those bla blogs. But it is here no matter.

Peace
Travis

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. - Colossians 1:17

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Ron Paul Is The Only Presidential Candidate Who Gets It


The recent passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the reaction–or better, lack of reaction–by the GOP’s Presidential candidates is a perfect example of how it will not matter to a Tinker’s Dam which Republican candidate wins the nomination, unless that candidate is Congressman Ron Paul. This is what so many people within the so-called Religious Right and establishment GOP just do not understand: they do not understand the fact that America is in the throes of a burgeoning police state. They have buried their heads in the sand for so long that they wouldn’t know what tyranny looked like if it came up and bit them on their blessed assurance! They have totally drunk the propaganda Kool Aid that purports that the biggest threat to our liberties comes from the Sand People. Our Founding Fathers were a much wiser lot, of course. They understood perfectly that the biggest threat to our liberties comes from Washington, D.C., not Baghdad, or Tehran, or any other foreign entity.
Listen to Daniel Webster: “There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence. I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men and become the instruments of their own undoing.”
Yet, except for Ron Paul, not a single Republican Presidential candidate has issued the slightest warning regarding the draconian components of the NDAA that literally turns America’s homeland into a war zone and, with the stroke of a pen, effectively eviscerates the Bill of Rights. Why is that? Because, except for Ron Paul, none of them get it. Bachman, Gingrich, Perry, Romney, Santorum. None of them!
The day after Christmas, TheHill.com posted this report quoting Dr. Paul. “GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul warned that the National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed by Congress this month, will accelerate the country’s ‘slip into tyranny’ and virtually assures ‘our descent into totalitarianism.’
“‘The founders wanted to set a high bar for the government to overcome in order to deprive an individual of life or liberty,’ Paul, the libertarian congressman from Texas, said Monday in a weekly phone message to supporters. ‘To lower that bar is to endanger everyone. When the bar is low enough to include political enemies, our descent into totalitarianism is virtually assured. The Patriot Act, as bad as its violations against the Fourth Amendment was, was just one step down the slippery slope. The recently passed National Defense Authorization Act continues that slip into tyranny, and in fact, accelerates it significantly.’”
The Hill report continued quoting Dr. Paul, “‘The Fifth Amendment is about much more than the right to remain silent in the face of government questioning,’ Paul continued. ‘It contains very basic and very critical stipulations about the due process of law. The government cannot imprison a person for no reason and with no evidence presented and without access to legal council. The danger of the NDAA is its alarmingly vague, undefined criteria for who can be indefinitely detained by the U.S. government without trial.’”
The report also quoted Congressman Paul as saying, “‘The president’s widely expanded view of his own authority to detain Americans indefinitely even on American soil is for the first time in this legislation codified in law,’ Paul said. ‘That should chill all of us to our cores.’
“‘The Bill of Rights has no exceptions for really bad people or terrorists or even non-citizens. It is a key check on government power against any person. That is not a weakness in our legal system, it is the very strength of our legal system. The NDAA attempts to justify abridging the Bill of Rights on the theory that rights are suspended in a time of war, and the entire United States is a battlefield in the war on terror. This is a very dangerous development, indeed. Beware.’”
See TheHill report at:
Then again, not only are these pathetic Presidential pretenders not aware of this fast erosion of our liberties being orchestrated by these miserable miscreants inside the Beltway, how many of you folks who go to church every Sunday hear your pastor say a peep about the totalitarian elements contained within the NDAA? Yep! That’s what I thought! They don’t get it, either!
For that matter, where is the first State Governor, Lieutenant Governor, or Attorney General to say, “Not in my State!”? Where are the county sheriffs to say, “Not in my county!”? (I can promise you this, if Bob Fanning and Chuck Baldwin are elected Montana Governor and Lieutenant Governor in 2012, we will say it! And we will say it loudly enough that everyone in Washington D.C., will be able to hear it!)
And speaking of Montana, it is extremely encouraging to learn that my friend and Oathkeepers founder, attorney Stewart Rhodes, is leading a recall petition against the two US senators from Montana who both supported NDAA. Salem-News.com has the story: “Moving quickly on Christmas Day after the US Senate voted 86-14 to pass the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (NDAA) which allows for the indefinite military detention of American citizens without charge or trial, Montanans have announced the launch of recall campaigns against Senators Max Baucus and Jonathan Tester, who voted for the bill.
“Montana is one of nine states with provisions that say that the right of recall extends to recalling members of its federal congressional delegation, pursuant to Montana Code 2-16-603, on the grounds of physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of oath of office, official misconduct, or conviction of certain felony offenses.”
The Salem-News report continued saying, “Montana law requires grounds for recall to be stated which show conformity to the allowed grounds for recall. The draft language of the Montana petitions, ‘reason for recall’ reads:
“The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees all U.S. citizens:
“‘a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed…’
“[NDAA] permanently abolishes the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, ‘for the duration of hostilities’ in the War on Terror, which was defined by President George W. Bush as ‘task which does not end’ to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2011.
“Those who voted Aye on December 15, 2011, Bill of Rights Day, for NDAA 2011 have attempted to grant powers which cannot be granted, which violate both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
“The Montana Recall Act stipulates that officials including US senators can only be recalled for physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of the oath of office, official misconduct, or conviction of a felony offense. We the undersigned call for a recall election to be held for Senator Max S. Baucus [and Senator Jonathan Tester] and charge that he has violated his oath of office, to protect and defend the United States Constitution.”
The report goes on to quote Rhodes (a Yale Law School graduate) as saying, “These politicians from both parties betrayed our trust, and violated the oath they took to defend the Constitution. It’s not about the left or the right, it’s about our Bill of Rights. Without the Bill of Rights, there is no America. It is the Crown Jewel of our Constitution, and the high-water mark of Western Civilization.” Amen, Stewart! Amen!
See the Salem-News report at:
NDAA should be to Americans in 2011 what the Boston Massacre was to the colonists in 1770, because this Act literally massacres the Bill of Rights. (And risking the charge that I’m tooting my own horn, when Montanans elect Bob Fanning Governor and Chuck Baldwin Lieutenant Governor in 2012, it will be the second “shot heard ’round the world.”) And of all the Presidential hopefuls, Ron Paul is only one who gets it!
P.S. This is the final call for THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS. To order this giant compilation of America’s great historical documents, go to:
P.S.S. To see the Fanning-Baldwin campaign web site, or to donate to our campaign, go to:
*If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may now be made by credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link:
© Chuck Baldwin

12-29-11 Ron Paul reacts to new ad

Kelly Clarkson Endorses Ron Paul for President

Ron Paul: Stop Defending A Racist

Oklahoma City Bombing Special Radio 8:30 PM EST Truthradionet.com

Jesse Ventura Endorses Ron Paul as the Only Anti-war Candidate 1/2

Mitt Flop Romney vs Mitt Flop Romney

Luke says WAC Best Of Almost Done from FB


i think finally after editing 3 nights and days the best of wearechange 2011 is done, hopefully will be up soon

"Maisy" by Hollis

Obama asks Congress to raise debt ceiling

Rebel Libya cracks without anti-Gaddafi glue

Defending Ron Paul against common but silly assumptions

Defending Ron Paul against common but silly assumptions

Ron Paul Doubles Down On War Stance

Brand new island rises from Red Sea depths

BIGjebelzubair_ali_2011357.jpg

(Image: NASA/Earth Observatory)
Throw away that shiny new atlas you got for Christmas - it's already out of date.
Volcanic activity in the Red Sea is causing the formation of a new island in the Zubair archipelago as lava is cooled by the surrounding seawater and solidifies. The underwater volcano responsible is located on the Red Sea Rift, where the African and Arabian tectonic plates are slowly pulling apart.
Yemeni fishermen first spotted lava spewing 30 metres into the air on 19 December and this was later confirmed by satellite observations. Ash plumes were detected by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard its Terra and Aqua satellites and NASA's Advanced Land Imager aboard its Earth Observing One satellite, which produced this image. Elevated levels of sulphur dioxide in the region were also recorded by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard NASA's Aura satellite.
By 23 December, the lava mass had broken the water's surface and the new island had begun to take shape. The island is currently around 500m wide and is still growing. The question now is whether or not it has staying power. It may continue to grow significantly as volcanic activity continues, or the fragile lava mass may be broken up by the action of the sea's waves.
Whatever the outcome, volcanic activity in the Red Sea region appears to be on the rise. This is the first time the volcano has erupted in over a century and follows recent eruptions in the Afar Triangle in Eritrea and Ethiopia and the volcanic fields of southern Yemen and Saudi Arabia. In 2007, the nearby Jabal al-Tair volcanic island also erupted for the first time in over a century, killing 8 people.

Rick Perry Pushes To Break Law In Virginia To Get On Ballot

Rick Perry is demanding the laws be bent and broken to favor him rather than comply with the letter of those laws, and this of course means that as a President he will be of exactly the same mind.




By Edvard Pettersson and Michael Riley
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Texas Governor Rick Perry is seeking a court order to stop Virginia election officials from printing or distributing primary ballots after his presidential campaign was told his name wouldn’t appear on them.
Perry, a Republican, filed an emergency motion yesterday seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent distribution of the ballots without his name. In a lawsuit filed Dec. 27 in federal court in Richmond, Perry claimed that the state’s requirement that petition circulators be eligible or registered qualified voters in Virginia violates his constitutional rights.
“Virginia ballot access rules are among the most onerous and are particularly problematic in a multicandidate election,” Ray Sullivan, a spokesman for Perry, said in a statement yesterday. “We believe that the Virginia provisions unconstitutionally restrict the rights of candidates and voters by severely restricting access to the ballot.”
The Republican Party of Virginia said Dec. 24 that Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich failed to get the required signatures from 10,000 registered voters, including 400 from each of the state’s 11 congressional districts. Two other Republicans, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas, qualified for the primary scheduled for so-called Super Tuesday on March 6.
U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr. set a hearing on the motion for today at 10 a.m. in Richmond.
Ballot Requirements
Justin Riemer, a spokesman for the Virginia State Board of Elections, a defendant in the lawsuit, declined to comment yesterday on Perry’s complaint.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican, said on his blog this week that he advocates loosening the state’s ballot requirements so that candidates would need only 100 signatures from each of the state’s congressional districts.

False CFR Debate over Aviation Emissions

http://www.cfr.org/eu/debate-over-aviation-emissions/p26924
December 29, 2011

Author:
Toni Johnson, Senior Editor/Senior Staff Writer


The Debate over Aviation Emissions - the-debate-over-aviation-emissions
Heathrow airport, London (Eddie Keogh/Courtesy Reuters)
Starting January 1, the EU will require all international air carriers flying in and out of the airports of member states to participate in itscarbon trading regime governing greenhouse gas emissions. Last week, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg rejected a petition (AviationInternational) by a group of U.S. airlines that argued the plan to impose the scheme on non-European airlines contravened international law and impinged on the sovereignty of other nations.
What's at Stake
The move, which is expected to raise airfare and introduce a new level of economic risk (MarketWatch) for airlines due to fluctuating carbon prices, comes at a time when the airline industry is struggling to address higher fuel costs and a decreased demand for air travel. The industry forecasts significantly lower earnings in 2012 (WSJ) and possible losses of up to $8 billion if the eurozone's economic woes erupt into a full-blown banking crisis. Analysts at Bloomberg Government say it could cost U.S. airlines alone anywhere from $2 billion to $4 billion through 2020 to comply with the EU scheme.
More than twenty governments, including the United States, China, India, and Russia, have issued protests, and in some cases threatened retaliation. TheInternational Air Transport Association and some analysts warn the aviation issue could erupt into a trade war. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill forbidding U.S. airlines from participating in the EU's carbon market. Australian trade expert Alan Oxley said at a special seminar during December's UN climate conference that the potential demise of the Kyoto Protocol (Australian) would lead to more attempts like the EU's plan to erect trade barriers in order to combat climate change.
The Debate
Whether the EU's plan constitutes a tax that violates international trade (Guardian)and aviation law is hotly contested, as is the financial impact on the airline industry. "This is a trade barrier in the name of environmental protection," says an editorial by China's Xinhua news agency (FT). Market analysis compiled by Fitch Ratings notes that "retaliation may be largely rhetorical in the early stages, but an absence of progress next year may trigger protectionist responses, especially from emerging market governments."
Environmentalists, meanwhile, argue that non-EU airlines and their respective governments are blowing the issue out of proportion. "The financial impact will amount to, at most, some $16 for a transatlantic flight," writes environmental lawyer Vera Pardee, who notes that by participating in the carbon market some airlines might even make money (HuffingtonPost). While the EU will issue 85 percent of emissions allowance free, airlines could realize $27 billion in additional revenue over the next decade if they choose to charge customers anyway, according to the European Commission.
Policy Options
The EU has said it would exempt airlines complying with equivalent emissions-reduction policies based in their own countries. But opponents argue the EU mandate disrupts a plan by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the industry's governing body, to create a market-based emissions regime for international air travel, which could be initiated as early as 2013. Some experts say there is still time to broker a deal for governing emissions under the ICAO.
Jeff Gazzard, who works for a London-based environmental group, notes that the EU's market is an adequate global model for controlling aviation emissions and that all the world's airlines have already begun to take measures to comply (Economist), including applying for free allowances.
Background Materials
This primer from Pricewaterhouse Coopers International explores the EU's plan for aviation carbon trading.
This report from U.S.–based NGO World Growth looks at how to avoid "green protectionism." (PDF)
The World Bank's 2010 Development report examines the relationship betweentrade and climate change(PDF).

Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.