Al Gore

I think he should run for president. I like his quip in testimony today:

“The planet has a fever. “If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor.” He added, “If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don’t say ‘I read a science fiction novel that says it’s not a problem.’ You take action.”

The article continues...

"In written testimony for the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, Bjorn Lomborg, a Danish statistician and author critical of people who present environmental problems as a crisis, asserted that Mr. Gore’s portrayal of global warming as a problem and his prescription for solving it were both deeply flawed.

Mr. Lomborg said that “global warming is real and man-made,” but that a focus on intensified energy research would be more effective and far cheaper than caps or taxes on greenhouse gas emissions or energy sources that produce them.

“Statements about the strong, ominous and immediate consequences of global warming are often wildly exaggerated,” he said. “We need a stronger focus on smart solutions rather than excessive if well-intentioned efforts.”"

Once again, it astounds me that conservatives find this kind of argument so appealing - witness Bush's efforts to increase government-sponsored research on alternative fuels while anything like a gas tax is off the table. Of course new technologies are the solution - the question is, is government-directed research the best way to develop them? We've got thousands of creative scientists and entrepreneurs who could be put to work developing new energy technologies. With gas at $2.50 a gallon and no guarantee that prices won't fall considerably below that, they don't have much incentive to get out there and innovate. Guarantee gas at $5 a gallon and the energy entrepreneurs will come out of the woodwork. Taxes on fossil fuels are not an alternative to developing new technology, they provide a necessary institutional incentive for their development.

When did the conservatives lose their faith in markets (adjusted with the occasional Pigouvian tax)? Oh, right around the time Grover Norquist started forcing all Republican candidates to sign the no new taxes pledge.