[Update: I copy at bottom a follow-up exchange I had on Bob`s thread with another reader - radio silence from Bob.]
Bob Murphy has a new post up at his blog, "CBO Testimony Misleads on Cost of Cap-and-Trade", that draws attention to a new blog post at the Institute of Energy Research that Bob says he "had a lot to do with".
The IER post rightly criticizes some of the numbers that the Congressional Budget Office has released, but the IER is playing games itself.
I left the following note at Bob`s (now substantially goosed up for the benefit of readers):
TokyoTom said...
IER? Isn`t that the "free-market" blog that bans libertarians who are not on their pro-coal, pro-pollution wagon? [Oops, I confused this with Rob Bradley`s MasterResource blog; IER is different, in that IER is - much more clearly than MR - an active rent-seeking front for fossil fuel interests, which Exxon made clear last year when it publicly announced that it would no longer fund IER`s "unproductive", climate-skeptic position.]
But while we`re on the subject, let`s not forget:
- Austrians` fundamental objections to cost-benefit analysis;
-
that the mining, transport and combustion of coal, in addition to whatever climate "cost" it
might have to various people whose preferences can`t be measured, have
very real and significant costs in terms of damage to persons and property;
-
that federal law authorizes this (via the "Clean Air Act", surface mining laws and ownership of the TVA), and grandfathers the very worst
midwestern utilities, the oldest 10% of which (41 or so) are estimated to be responsible for 43% of the
$62 billion in annual damages (not including damages from harm to ecosystems, effects of some air pollutants such as mercury, or climate change)(according
to the latest NAS report on the indirect costs of fossil fuels);
- that our federal government and states own most of the coal deposits and are otherwise addicted to the royalty revenues and complicit in turning a blind eye to damages;
- the future "costs" that the IER analysis refers to (in 2050) are not discounted to present value;
-
that alternative policies - such as
are never advanced, much less their costs weighed [that is, no attempt is ever made to engage opponents in good faith or to seek mutual gains by working to resolve underlying problems];
- the costs/consequences/risks and equities of "do-nothing" policies are hardly considered, and when so are heavily discounted;
- that deliberate "geo-engineering" holds no promise as a panacea, and itself is fraught with issues about statism, preferences, risks and liaibility;
-
the need for investment in infrastructure and change in laws to adapt
(and foster adaptation) to very real ongoing climate changes are never
discussed; and
- no one at IER ever seems to question the
unstated presumption that utilities and our transportation industries
have somehow homesteaded an ownership right over the global atmosphere - or the massive role that our federal government and states play as coal and other energy resource owners),
so that it`s perfectly okay to dismiss the preferences of those who
have concerns at home [those "religious" nuts like Exxon, and our Academies of Science] and those abroad in the least developed countries
that are most vulnerable to damages (much less to suggest how those
injured should be aided).
In other words, those defending the
status quo seem to have abandoned any Austrian training (or to have no
familiarity with its concern for problem-solving and awareness that
[as Block points out] common law protection of private property rights was hijacked a century
ago, with massive pollution and rent-seeking problems being the result).
Someone
ought to post a few of these thoughts over at IER; Rob Bradley somehow
finds comments of this type over fundamental principles to be "ad hominem" arguments [of the kind that very quickly tested his patience and got me banned, without any word to his co-bloggers, who found my comments worthy of considered response].
Sure, we should fight over policy, but let`s not ignore principles or put our heads in the sand.
# posted by
: October 28, 2009 10:31 AM