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POPSA Maverick Climate Policy
For example, in Phase I of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, which started three years ago, a huge misallocation of emissions quotas led to a collapse in the price of carbon from $40 to 40 cents. At that price, there was no incentive to reduce emissions, which is why Phase I was an abject failure. Even a functioning cap could have only a limited effect on emissions. Energy-intensive industries would have every incentive to move their operations to countries without carbon controls, like China. As a result, McCain's plan would cause a net reduction not of greenhouse gas emissions, but of American jobs. The Arizona senator's plan might not shrink emissions, but it will surely grow government. (and raise billions of dollars) McCain does not offset this increase in government revenue with tax cuts elsewhere in the budget, so government would get bigger. He has said that he wants to promote "green jobs," and indeed he would be doing so, by adding green bureaucrats.
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POPSQuestions about Questions about Global Warming...
As the banter and punditry continues, I am still confused by one thing: what should we do? Raising questions about global warming is one thing, but these critics provide no constructive agenda. I suppose that their implicit agenda is that we should do nothing, but once again, I don't understand this. First, the obvious obligation to environmental stewardship, simply for the sake of our own quality of life seems sound enough to mandate action with or without global warming. But, second, what is the point of all this? Science is not religion, it never really provides concrete answers. Instead it provides judgements based on the current knowledge. Even if our knowledge of climate change is imperfect today, it probably always will be. Yet in the mean time we must act in good faith on our best conclusions. Although we should be willing to change our minds if we discover new evidence in the future, today we would be idiots to not act on what knowledge we do have.
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