I'm serious!

Here's David Leonhardt in today's NY Times:

The only reliable way to reduce carbon emissions is to make them more expensive. When you hear somebody talk first about doing this and only then about the wonderful innovations that will follow — and they will follow — you know that person is serious.

That's just what I said on March 21st (dang, how do I make permalinks?)!

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.