Environmental Activists Are Trying To Exploit Wall Street Bailout Bill

.......energy or natural resource development projects that the Greens oppose.

Once the U.S. Government owns the securities (and, thereby, the property) an omnipotent Paulson could essentially take the land out of circulation by "preserving" it as public land.

He could even claim — through the economic device of "contingent valuation" — that the acquired land has more value as pristine public land than as, say, an energy or logging project.

Contingent valuation uses opinion surveys to value intangible assets for which there is no market, such as scenic views and crystal-clear air.

Respondents are asked hypothetical questions like, "How much would you pay to preserve a seashore view from oil drilling?" or "How much is it worth to keep a forest pristine and un-logged?"

Though the whole process is pretend — the respondents know they won't actually spend any of their own money for this preservation — the government uses the method to establish monetary values of preserved la

clipped from junkscience.com Friedman quoted a green-collar jobs proponent who said, "You can't base a national economy on credit cards. But you can base it on solar panels, wind turbines, smart biofuels and a massive program to weatherize every building and home in America." Greens will likely be able to count on Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to implement their agenda for them. The former head of Goldman Sachs — who simultaneously headed up the Nature Conservancy and recently told Fortune magazine that action on global warming is crucial to the U.S. — is no stranger to using "other people's money" to implement the Green agenda on land secured by distressed debt. Monday's rejection of the Wall Street bailout bill by the House has opened the door for the alternative-energy industry to again try to renew the tax credits about to expire for wind power projects such as the Pickens Plan. Paulson could use bailout money to purchase debt securities that are secured by property either coveted by Greens or targeted for