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Health & Fitness

Three Hours of My Life

If man can design a greenhouse that allows the sun to keep plants cozy without roasting them, how much more can God/Mother Nature/Evolution design an atmosphere that keeps our planet habitable?

On my first full day of my summer vacation, I decided to go to the 'circus' in Trenton.  When I finally found parking,  I had to walk through a tent city behind the State House - such was the popularity of the street protesters/performers that many camped out to be first in line to join a non-violent chorus of 'Kill the Bill'. This was public workers' revolt against Gov. Chris Christie and the legislature's efforts to force them to contribute more to their health and pension benefit costs. In front of the state house was a stage, a giant inflated rat, and an overly loud sound system blaring out songs to fire up the union faithful.

My destination and purpose, however, was not to stand in the streets in solidarity with the self-described victims of government-mandated givebacks, but rather to stand opposed to the government-mandated Energy Tax named RGGI - Regional Greenhouse Gas Intitiative.  For those of you who are uninitiated, RGGI is our state legislature's version of the carbon tax proposed by the Obama administration - a tax the president said would "necessarily skyrocket" the cost of energy.

Some say reducing the risk to the health of our planet is worth reducing the prospects for economic recovery - after all, we've only one planet.  And, two out of three climatologists agree that man-generated plant food (CO2) is a leading cause of global warming and its nasty side-effects - hurricanes, earthquakes, flooding, famine, wars and apocalypse.

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The governor has signed his intention to pull NJ out of RGGI; the state Democrats have introduced new bills to try to keep the Garden State tethered to the program.

The way I look at it,  if man can design a greenhouse that allows the sun to keep plants cozy without roasting them, how much more can God/Mother Nature/Evolution design an atmosphere that keeps our planet habitable?

Find out what's happening in Woodbridgewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Can you tell where I stand on the issue?  Unfortunately, halfway through the senate hearing, and before I had a chance to give testimony on the bills I was there to protest - S-2946 and SCR-164 -the senators started to excuse themselves from the hearing for more pressing matters.  And finally, after investing three hours of my life and many more hours of research I had done, unheard and unsung, I was thanked for my attendance and dismissed.

Thank you for allowing me to get this concern off my chest.  It's good to finally be heard!

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