Washington Post op-ed: A Dated Approach to Global Warming

[DeepModem Mom]

A Dated Carbon Approach
By Sebastian Mallaby
Monday, July 10, 2006; Page A17

These days almost nobody asserts that global warming isn't happening. Instead, we are confronted with a new lie: that we can respond to climate change without taxing and regulating carbon.

The Bush administration -- and many Democrats, too -- promise technological salvation: hydrogen fuel cells, ethanol distilled from grass, solar power, windmills, whatever....We already have technologies to cut carbon. Hybrid cars have been around for years, but almost nobody drives them. Small cars have been on the market even more years, but they aren't consumer hits either. There are dozens of technologies to insulate buildings and design heating and cooling systems in efficient ways. The problem is we don't use them.

You can even cut carbon using no technology whatever. Mexico City has reduced its output of carbon dioxide by almost 55,000 tons a year by opening one efficient bus route; the key innovation here was the creation of two bus lanes....So what matters is not just the technologies we have but the incentives to deploy them. The average Western European uses half as much energy as the average American, and that's not because there's more technology in Europe. Rather, Europeans have embraced anti-carbon policies ranging from gas taxes to emissions caps, from an absence of extravagant mortgage subsidies that encourage super-size homes to congestion charges for drivers in London and Stockholm.

Because of Norway's carbon taxes, companies drilling for natural gas in the North Sea are starting to capture the carbon dioxide they release and inject it back under the sea floor. Because the United States lacks a carbon tax, natural gas drillers in this country have less incentive to do that. Meanwhile the Energy Department reports that there are plans to build 150 new coal-fired power plants in the United States, enough to generate power for 93 million homes. But because government hasn't created intelligent incentives, most of these new generators won't be fitted with technology to capture and store the carbon....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/09/AR2006070900537.html

[countmyvote4real]

1. K&R

[don954]

2. climate change

if were right, and we do nothing, were fscked. If they are right, and we take action anyways, whats a little more cash spend after the mountain they have already piled up? Besides, taking action will create new industries and end our dependence on foreign energy, a great benefit for economy and security. The path of least risk, would be to take action.

But that just logic.... :evilgrin: