Warmists: Republicans Have Forgotten The Power Of The Free Market Since They Won’t Implement A Carbon Tax

I always get a kick out of Democrats attempting to explain the “free market”, particularly as it applies to ‘climate change’. Their version of the free market is always interesting. Here’s the Editorial Board of the Frederick News-Post, a Maryland paper, who killed lots of trees to publish their paper and use vast amounts of fossil fuels to distribute them

Since when did the Republican Party forget the power of the free market?

Climate-change deniers can close their eyes and turn the page — we’re going to talk today about how and why we need to harness the power of the free market to avert global catastrophe. Let’s start with the basics:

Fact 1: Climate change is real and urgent. Enough already.

Fact 2: Emitting climate-changing gas is a classic economic externality, much like polluting a river. One company or person benefits from spewing cheap carbon, while everyone bears the cost.

Fact 3: Prices change behavior. Just look at what happened to sales of SUVs when gas prices topped $4 a gallon, and look at sales today.

Given these core facts, the Republican rejection of a market-based response to climate change is mystifying.

It’s rejected because climate change caused mostly/solely by Mankind is a fiction. Why would anyone implement anything to solve a non-problem, unless it is for power and/or money? So, what does the Editorial Board propose?

Back in the day when Republicans stood for free markets, they understood that the least onerous way to deal with market externalities such as pollution is to put a fair price on the activity that causes them. That gives polluters a choice — keep polluting and pay those who suffer from their actions, or change their practices. The other alternative is strict regulation and enforcement. Given that choice, many Republicans in 1990 supported successful, market-based solutions to deal with acid rain.

So why not embrace a market-based mechanism such as a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade regime to deal with climate change? It’s hardly radical — even Exxon Mobil has backed the idea.

Except, when it is Government setting the policy via legislation and regulation, then setting the price for the “commodity”, it is no longer a free market exchange, where the price would be established by the parties engaged in commerce. The market Warmists are explaining is a Socialist market, whereby the government is heavily invested in control.

Warmists keep trotting out this trope that a carbon tax and/or cap and trade are somehow part of the free market, yet, how free is it when the government is forcing individuals and private entities to participate?

Perhaps we should put a carbon tax on news organizations, starting at $45 per metric ton, to offset the carbon footprint of operating and distributing the news. All that energy, all that fossil fuel. Newspapers would be fine with this, right? It’s just all part of their “free market”, right? Especially when the government requires compliance and payment.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

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