“Even in flush economic times, carbon taxes would be bad policy. When economies are already laboring under too much spending and are at diminishing-return levels of taxation, implementing a carbon tax would be a mistake.”
– Kenneth Green, Dissecting the Carbon Tax, The American, July 13, 2012.
Open-mindedness is a mark of scholarship. And some great lights of classical-liberal social thought in the 20th century changed their minds for theoretical/empirical reasons from a utilitarian perspective.
F. A. Hayek began as a democratic socialist. Milton Friedman started as a FDR New Dealer and Keynesian. [1] Friedman later in life even moved away from his (naive) view of a fixed-monetary rule where, as he once put it, a computer program could manage the money supply. [2] Turns out that ‘money supply’ is not a fixed, known quantity; turns out that money is a government monopoly subject to politics.…
“Far exceeding the legal authority that Congress has delegated to the EPA, this power plan would set the U.S. on an even more aggressive path to reduce CO2 than has been taken by some European countries where electric prices are two to three times higher than the average U.S. rate.”
– Kathleen Hartnett White, Texas Public Policy Foundation (May 7, 2015)
Congratulations to the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) for congratulating Texas political leaders for standing firm–and mighty tall–against climate alarmism mandated from Washington, DC. Obama might be high in the saddle right now, and the spin-science-Left might be tossing climate anger at realistic science, but the voting public isn’t buying it. Abbott, Cornyn, and Cruz are playing a winning intellectual and political hand alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.…
Those interested in energy and climate policy should subscribe to Climate, Etc., hosted by Judith Curry, the fearless one-woman truth seeker in the polarized climate debate. Professor Curry, who is very well credentialed — and respected by the quiet climatologists, not only the so-called skeptics — is arguably the most important voice in the physical science side of today’s climate debate. Not only is her research at the cutting edge of the unsettled science, she regularly, accurately, and fearlessly reports the latest in the science debates
Professor Curry recently testified before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, which held a hearing, “The President’s UN Climate Pledge: Scientifically Justified or a New Tax on Americans?” She then answered follow-up questions, from which the indented answers are drawn.…