At the same confab in which John Kerry said the debate over man-made global warming is settled because gravity says so, the state secretary gave Barack Obama credit for the lower fossil fuel emissions measured in the United States today compared to previous years. “Since President Obama took office, the United States has upped its wind energy production more than threefold and increased our solar energy generation more than tenfold,” he told the Atlantic Council. “We’ve also become smarter about the way we use energy in our homes and businesses. And this is by far the most ambitious set of climate actions that the United States of America has ever undertaken. And it’s a large part of why today we’re emitting less than we have in two decades [emphasis added].” Unfortunately for Kerry, facts – those stubborn things – tell a different story. As Michael Bastasch of The Daily Caller points out, “Government data shows that U.S. emissions began to fall in 2007 – Obama’s ‘Climate Action Plan’ wasn’t announced until summer 2013.” So, unless Obama’s policies have a retro effect, Kerry’s assertion is simply a lie. Incidentally, the decline in emissions coincides with the beginning of the Great Recession, from which the U.S. still hasn’t truly recovered. And lower economic activity naturally goes hand in hand with fewer emissions. According to Bastasch, “In 2009, the U.S. emitted about 6.79 million metric tons of CO₂ and by 2013 the country was only emitting 6.74 million metric tons of greenhouse gases.” So let Obama take credit for stagnating greenhouse gases – it only illustrates how terrible he is at promoting economic growth. More…