From yesterday's WSJ. I sent David Minkiw [Pigou Club] the second one.
Green Is As Green Does (by Don Boudreaux)
By Don Boudreaux on The Profit Motive
Today's edition of the Wall Street Journal contains several excellent letters on the alleged desirability of using government to promote "green" technologies. Here are the first three of these letters:
Fred Krupp's op-ed "Climate Change Opportunity" (April 8) overlooks what most climate change skeptics are skeptical of: government's ability to effectively regulate the economy. If there is a way to make money from alternative energy sources, the market will find it. There is no need for bureaucrats to lead the way. Government regulations at best distort the market to benefit politically favorable (read "green") industries, and at worst create unintended consequences that increase the cost of energy and energy innovation. Congress doesn't need to act in order for energy efficiencies to be realized by business; it needs to stay out of the way.
David Smith
Boston
In Europe, consumers pay up to $9 a gallon for gasoline, in part because European Union governments tax gasoline at rates of $2 to $3 a gallon and more. What most people don't realize is that gasoline taxes are implicit carbon taxes. Taxing gasoline at $1 a gallon is roughly equivalent to taxing the carbon dioxide emissions from gasoline at $100 per ton. So, European motorists are paying carbon dioxide penalties of $300 or more per ton. That's about six times higher than the maximum estimated carbon permit price under the Warner-Lieberman cap-and-trade proposal.
Yet where in Europe is the miracle fuel to replace petroleum? Where are all the zero-emission vehicles? Europe is not one mile closer than we are to achieving a "beyond petroleum" transport system. In fact, from 1990 to 2004, EU transport sector carbon dioxide emissions increased by almost 26%.
Mr. Krupp and other cap-and-trade advocates ignore the main lesson of the failed Synfuels program of the 1970s, memorably expressed by MIT's Thomas Lee, Ben Ball Jr. and Richard Tabors: "If a technology is commercially viable, then government support is not needed, and if a technology is not commercially viable, no amount of government support will make it so."
Marlo Lewis
Senior Fellow
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Washington
The Environmental Defense Fund's president says he is simply trying to lower the cost of adapting to climate change. I'm suspicious. When environmentalists wanted to save the spotted owl, they told us that economic costs should not be a factor in that decision. When they wanted to save salmon by demolishing dams, they told us that cost should not be an issue. When they wanted to protect Alaskan wilderness, they said that energy costs should not be considered. Now, suddenly, they are all about saving us money. Either they have changed the way they think about the environment, or they want to control how I live my life, using any argument. That's handy.
Bill Conerly
Chairman
Cascade Policy Institute
Lake Oswego, Ore |
