MarketWatch has been running an excellent series on the business and political implications of efforts to curb carbon emissions, and I urge our readers to take a look at this recent piece by William Watts .
In it, Watts quotes Phil Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, who says: “A consensus has emerged that there is going to be an economy-wide cap-and-trade system, whether it’s under this administration or passes in the first year or two of the next one.” He goes on to say that U.S. industries are pushing for a cap now, because they might get a better deal from President Bush than they would from a President Clinton or Obama, or even Giuliani or McCain.
This view meshes with something we’ve been saying on Terra Rossa for some time – some form of carbon cap is coming; it is a political inevitability. And it is time for conservatives and business leaders to accept this, and work constructively to get a bill that will be good for the environment and the economy. As we have seen, big businesses, even big oil companies and auto makers, have started to come around to this view.
I have been criticized by some of this blog’s readers for making these points, and their criticisms are not invalid. I’m not so naïve to think that DuPont or General Motors would support a carbon cap if popular support for one did not exist. But popular support does exist, and is increasing in strength. Our most recent survey of South Carolina Republican Primary Voters showed significant support for limiting carbon emissions, regardless of a voter’s view about global warming.
Conservatives face a clear choice on this issue: They can fight a cap and get steamrolled by public opinion, or they can accept a cap and make sure it will include a market-based mechanism that can help offset the new regulatory costs. It worked when we capped sulfur emissions, where we ended up with cleaner air and a strong economy. A carbon cap can give us both, too.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Cap and Trade, Climate Change, Politics/Government . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
