Nighttime Must-Read: Matthew Yglesias: The Deafening Silence of “Reform Conservatives” on Climate Change
Matthew Yglesias: The deafening silence of “reform conservatives” on climate change: “With climate change policy in the news this week…
…I thought I might take the time to broaden my horizons by checking out the energy policy ideas contained in a recent policy book Room to Grow published by the YG Network… widely hailed as representing the best, freshest conservative thinking… “evidence that conservatism may be experiencing an intellectual resurgence as well as a political one.” On climate, as it happens, it has nothing to say. They don’t mount an argument that the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming is mistaken. They don’t mount an argument that despite the scientific consensus, inaction is nonetheless the right policy. They don’t mention it at all. Not even as something their political opponents wrongly care about.
The thought process that ended with this approach is easy enough to understand. Whether climate change is a massive conspiracy orchestrated by Al Gore, 99 percent of scientists, and a dazzling array of foreign governments or a genuine problem is hotly debated inside the conservative movement. Whether or not fossil-fuel producers should be hampered in their activities by regulatory concern about pollution, by contrast, is not controversial. For smart, up-and-coming conservatives to mention climate change, they would have to pick a side on the controversial issue. Do they sound like rubes by siding with the conspiracy theorists, or do they alienate the rubes by acknowledging the basic facts and the coming up with some other reason to favor inaction? The optimal choice is not to choose…. Of course one does not expect conservatives to endorse liberals’ approaches to these issues or even necessarily to share their concerns. But discussing energy policy without even using the words “climate change” or “global warming” makes nonsense of the actual political debate… makes it impossible to to try to think of compromises or constructive areas for joint action…. Just a few years ago, the GOP’s presidential nominee, John McCain, ran on a fairly robust climate change platform. Now even the most forward-thinking elements of the conservative coalition have simply disappeared the issue from the agenda.