David Frum: A Forgotten Legacy of George H. W. Bush

[babylonsister]

I think this is worth noting...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/george-h-w-bush-helped-reduce-acid-rain/577183/

A Forgotten Legacy of George H. W. Bush
He was an architect of one of the most important environmental achievements of the past three decades.
9:59 AM ET
David Frum


Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney will deliver one of the four eulogies for President George H. W. Bush at his state funeral Wednesday.

This is fitting, and not only because the two men were close friends. Mulroney and Bush were joint architects of one of the most important environmental achievements of the past three decades: the great reduction of acid rain.

snip//

The result was an important amendment to the Clean Air Act in 1990, and a new U.S.-Canada air-quality agreement in 1991. Over the next two decades, U.S. emissions of sulfur dioxide would tumble by 67 percent.

True to Bush’s conservative principles, the reduction was not achieved by government command-and-control, but by a market-friendly system: cap-and-trade. The government would set a steadily decreasing maximum permissible limit on total emissions. Underneath that cap, individual firms could buy and sell pollution rights. Those firms that could most easily and efficiently reduce their emissions would set the pace, incentivized by profits from selling their pollution rights to less innovative competitors.

North American lakes are still recovering from the damage done by pre-1990 acid rain. And, of course, acid rain has not been eliminated, only very substantially reduced. But still, that reduction is a success story. And it’s a success story that showed the way to other environmental possibilities, including the ultimate challenge: a reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions.

But what George H. W. Bush proved 28 years ago was that progress can be achieved—and that a market-oriented Republican can head that progress, in a way consistent with market principles. He debunked the “It’s not harmful” and “If it is harmful, it’s not man-made” excuses from self-interested groups and their hired mouthpieces.

Along the way, he demonstrated a commitment to mutually beneficial partnership with America’s neighbors and friends.

All these things were done before. They can be done again. George H. W. Bush showed us how. Let that be remembered when he is lowered into the earth he did so much to protect and restore.

[katmondoo]

1. I didn't know H.Bush did that, a very good mark for him