LETTERS: KYOTO OPPONENTS SEE JOB CONCERNS

To the editor:

Some business leaders and citizens lately have been characterized as belonging to the so-what crowd on the issue of global warming. It appears the name callers have resorted to labeling a coalition that is troubled at the prospect of significant Missouri job loss. Many of us are deeply concerned at the direction the Clinton administration is taking with this complex issue.

Some of our leaders want to make the Kyoto Protocol on Global Climate Change the law of the land. It would require America to reduce energy use to 93 percent of 1990 levels by 2012 -- in other words, use even less energy 12 years from now than we did 10 years ago. If the Kyoto Protocol is adopted, by 2012 the United States would be limited to using only 60 percent of the energy we currently use.

The Kyoto Protocol purports to be an international treaty, yet it fully exempts more than 130 nations from energy restrictions. In fact, only the United States and 35 other industrialized nations would be forced to cut energy use. And America's energy reduction requirement would be greater than the figure of the 35 other countries combined.

This is a formula for economic disaster. The provisions of this treaty would put American companies at an extreme competitive advantage, and American jobs -- not our products -- would be exported to countries where environmental and labor costs are far less expensive.

The Missouri Coalition on Global Climate Change estimates Missouri would lose more than 48,000 jobs. More than 2.4 million jobs would be lost nationwide, according to a study conducted by the Wharton School of Econometrics at the University of Pennsylvania. Where would these jobs go? To countries that don't have to reduce their energy use at all, including China, Brazil, India and Mexico. U.S. economic output would be reduced by $348 billion, and our tax base here in Missouri would be severely reduced.

The people who are farsighted enough to reject the Kyoto Protocol do not oppose it because they don't care about the environment. They reject the plan because it won't solve the problem, and ultimately it will hurt American families, workers and farmers.

It is better to have no deal at all than to make a bad deal.

DAN MEHAN, President

Missouri Chamber of Commerce

Chairman

Missouri Coalition on Global Climate Change

Jefferson City