I think where people get into trouble in this whole debate is by taking one of two binary positions: Climate Change is a fraud, or Climate Change will turn Earth into a Martian hellscape within a century. Both are absurd, and are simply for either PR or negotiating purposes and shouldn't be taken seriously.
It seems to me that the most sensible solution would actually be out of the libertarian playbook: an ironclad 50-year tax holiday on all revenue generated from both the production of carbon-neutral energy and the manufacture of clean energy generating equipment.
You would get a massive investment in clean energy R&D, especially by those who can afford it like Big Oil and OPEC, without the potentially massive drag on the economy that carbon caps or tax schemes would create.
I think this seemingly obvious solution is ignored because free market solutions are anathema to the left, and because the right could give a rat's ass.
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I think where people get into trouble in this whole debate is by taking one of two binary positions: Climate Change is a fraud, or Climate Change will turn Earth into a Martian hellscape within a century. Both are absurd, and are simply for either PR or negotiating purposes and shouldn't be taken seriously.
It seems to me that the most sensible solution would actually be out of the libertarian playbook: an ironclad 50-year tax holiday on all revenue generated from both the production of carbon-neutral energy and the manufacture of clean energy generating equipment.
You would get a massive investment in clean energy R&D, especially by those who can afford it like Big Oil and OPEC, without the potentially massive drag on the economy that carbon caps or tax schemes would create.
I think this seemingly obvious solution is ignored because free market solutions are anathema to the left, and because the right could give a rat's ass.