China Is Our Friend, Part 53,776--Let's Give Them Money

You can't make this stuff up.

"With China surpassing the United States as the No. 1 producer of carbon dioxide emissions, we're missing an historic opportunity to create a global alliance with China on clean energy," said Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., who is planning to introduce legislation to create U.S. assistance to China on low-emissions energy technology. "But instead, we're moving closer to military confrontation and economic competition."

We already HAVE that "assistance." PRChina can BUY it if they want it.

...new data show that last year China produced 6.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas, up 8.4 percent from 2005 -- an increase much faster than most international economists expected. The United States, meanwhile, emitted 5.8 billion tons, a 1.4 percent decline...

(Well, if carbon dioxide is a poison, then China's merely doing what it does best--see the list of recalled poisonous/dangerous/defective Chinese exports to the USA. But we digress.)

You could expect someone with a Harvard connection to be "urging:"

Kelly Gallagher, director of the Energy Technology Innovation Policy Project at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, proposed a multibillion-dollar, multinational fund with a "major U.S. contribution" that would give loans and grants for construction of low-emission power plants.

However, at least one person with influence actually thinks.

"China has $1.2 trillion in reserves, so I don't see that they need money," said the commission's chairman, Carolyn Bartholomew. "The American taxpayer is not going to look favorably at spending money on the Chinese when they have that kind of money and we have the trade deficit we do."

The Democratic Party Line, voiced by PRChina officials:

Beijing officials responded to the latest emissions data by arguing that the West was to blame.

Were Jane Fonda and AlGore visiting over there?

We saved the best for last. In order to persuade the US taxpayer to spend money on a country which already owns a $Trillion or so in USD reserves, we'll make it a matter of National Security:

"But if they believe that the United States is less secure because of China's voracious appetite for energy, they will be more receptive to ways to reduce that appetite." --Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y

I smell another version of the Last Refuge for Scoundrels in the making.