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Drill Baby Drill
Nov. 19th, 2009 02:58 pmSo, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jaylake points me to an interesting article by Thomas Friedman. Now, Friedman has a tendency to say things that sound profound but really aren't. However, in this case, he's saying something that actually is profound.
You don't have to believe in global warming to support a carbon tax.
Now, a carbon tax or its kissing cousin, a cap-and-trade on carbon emissions, is a feature of all the climate and energy bills working their way through Congress. These concepts have a simple goal - encourage the development of alternative energy sources by raising the price of carbon-based sources.
The fact that raising the price of energy is the only way Americans will conserve it should be obvious. Remember all the way back to August, 2008? Gas was $4/gallon, and hybrid cars were selling above list price if you could find them at all. Then, more recently, gas prices slumped, as did sales of hybrids. On the electrical power front, coal-fired power plants are always going to be the cheapest kind of power plant to build.
But, you say, if global warming is a hoax, who cares?
Friedman says, "According to the 2006 U.N. population report, “The world population will likely increase by 2.5 billion ... passing from the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion in 2050. This increase is equivalent to the total size of the world population in 1950."
Given this, even at current per-capita levels of energy use, we're going to need more energy. Except that there are a billion Chinese and over half-a-billion Indians who'd like to have a car and fly to the beach for the weekend. So, per-capita energy use levels are going to go up.
They are going to buy this energy from somebody. Right now, a lot of this energy comes from Saudi Arabia and other places full of people who don't like us. How much richer do we want these folks to get?
jaylake points me to an interesting article by Thomas Friedman. Now, Friedman has a tendency to say things that sound profound but really aren't. However, in this case, he's saying something that actually is profound.You don't have to believe in global warming to support a carbon tax.
Now, a carbon tax or its kissing cousin, a cap-and-trade on carbon emissions, is a feature of all the climate and energy bills working their way through Congress. These concepts have a simple goal - encourage the development of alternative energy sources by raising the price of carbon-based sources.
The fact that raising the price of energy is the only way Americans will conserve it should be obvious. Remember all the way back to August, 2008? Gas was $4/gallon, and hybrid cars were selling above list price if you could find them at all. Then, more recently, gas prices slumped, as did sales of hybrids. On the electrical power front, coal-fired power plants are always going to be the cheapest kind of power plant to build.
But, you say, if global warming is a hoax, who cares?
Friedman says, "According to the 2006 U.N. population report, “The world population will likely increase by 2.5 billion ... passing from the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion in 2050. This increase is equivalent to the total size of the world population in 1950."
Given this, even at current per-capita levels of energy use, we're going to need more energy. Except that there are a billion Chinese and over half-a-billion Indians who'd like to have a car and fly to the beach for the weekend. So, per-capita energy use levels are going to go up.
They are going to buy this energy from somebody. Right now, a lot of this energy comes from Saudi Arabia and other places full of people who don't like us. How much richer do we want these folks to get?
