Green Police Coming to Cambridge

Here you thought that Audi commercial from Super Sunday was just a gag. Well, the folks in Cambridge, Massachusetts will soon be under the jurisdiction of the Green Police.

Going green will not be optional in Cambridge, Mass., if the Cambridge Climate Congress has its way. It will be mandatory.

There will be congestion pricing to reduce car travel. Curbside parking will be eliminated. There will be a carbon tax "of some kind," not to mention taxes on plastic and paper bags. And the Massachusetts city, home of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will advocate vegetarianism and veganism, complete with "Meatless or Vegan Mondays."

So now you'll have these liberal Nazis coming into your home to see what you're eating every Monday? Good grief. Where does this lunacy end?

"This emergency is created by the growth of local greenhouse gas emissions despite the urgent warnings of climate scientists that substantial reductions are needed in order to reduce the risk of disastrous changes to our climate," the Climate Congress reported in proposals issued on Jan. 23. "This proposal is made in the belief that an effective local response is, if anything, made more urgent by so far inadequate global agreements and federal policies for emissions reductions. It is made in the belief that our City should lead by example."

Does anyone have the heart to tell these wackos that this mythical "climate change" is a hoax?

While the group's proposals remain a work in a progress, some experts say the potential measures it advocates are "heavy-handed" and incongruous. But others say the city just might be onto something, particularly if the taxes associated with the plan are used to make buildings and transportation more efficient.

Dr. Ken Green, a resident scholar on environment and energy at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington-based think tank, said he found an "overall redundancy" in the proposals, specifically regarding a carbon-based tax coupled with congestion pricing, increased parking meter rates and parking tickets.

"That's just a revenue-raiser for the city," said Green. "There's an overall incoherence of having a carbon tax and three or four indirect taxes."

Thanks to Hot Air for the link. A commenter there pointed to an item in the American Thinker. Get a load of this nonsense.

The veneration of all things "local" continues: "Cambridge should move in the direction of economic change, creating a locally based economy." (Notes 8.) We might "[c]onsider a local currency." (Notes 76.) And "[e]ncourage businesses to hire local people who will not have to commute." (Notes 77.) Wow, trade barriers with Somerville?

Since automobiles generate greenhouse gases, numerous ideas were put forth to limit or eliminate cars from Cambridge. My favorite is the dictum: "Cars should be shared rather than privately owned." (Notes 75.) Pol Pot would be on board with that one.

Elsewhere we read: "Eliminate streetside parking in the city." (Proposal 15.) And: "To decrease the number of Cambridge residents or employees who depend on cars, we could decrease the number of on‐street parking spaces." (Notes 76.)

Got that? If you depend on your car to buy groceries, then the city will solve your dependence problem by taking away your on-street parking. If you're elderly or have teenage sons who drink milk by the half-gallon, then the problem would be solved by immediately moving to Belmont -- that is, if you could still sell a house without a driveway in mid-Cambridge.