Environmentalism
Posted at 4:00pm on May 14, 2008 Polluting the Message
Always Let the Right Hand Know What the Left Hand is Pandering
By Mark I
Sen. John McCain has called for a summer gas tax holiday to help consumers dealing with the rising cost of filling their tanks. Most observers, including this one, think that the temporary aspect of McCain’s suspension makes it nothing more than political pandering. But we’ll accept that because of the political strategy inherent in making this proposal. It’s a good suggestion inasmuch as it forces his Democratic rivals to go on record as for or against higher gas prices. Sen. Hillary!™ Clinton recognized the political strategy implicit in McCain’s call and quickly endorsed the idea, while the Senator from H.O.P.E.™, Barack Obama, did not. In the process Obama painted himself as more comfortable than McCain or Clinton with high gas prices. So far, so good.
But then Sen. McCain stole the thunder away from his own political jujitsu by coming out in favor of a cap and trade system for carbon emissions. Leaving aside the catastrophic economic implications such a policy would have, and sidestepping the question of whether man-made global warming is real and reversible; calling for this policy on the heels of proposing a gas tax suspension is both bad politics and poor message craft. The two proposals contradict one another and make the Democrats' message look coherent by comparison.
Read on…
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Environmentalism | Gas Tax Holiday | Global Warming | Hillary Clinton | John McCain — Comments (21)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 10:03am on Apr. 11, 2008 Toxic Bulbs
By Dan McLaughlin
I've thought from the very beginning that the move to outlaw Edison's great invention, the incandescent light bulb, was basically foolhardy and possibly just a ploy to force consumers to buy $7 lightbulbs that (in my experience, at least) don't necessarily last much longer than regular bulbs. But that was before I really started to focus on the extent to which (as discussed here and here) the mercury in the bulbs presents a real health hazard that wasn't previously present in the home, and which - like the now-infamous introduction of MTBE into gasoline (also, at the time, claimed to be an environmental measure) is probably going to end up getting pulled off the market after the plaintiffs' personal injury bar gets done with it.
Posted in CFLs | Energy | Environmentalism | Light Bulbs — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Read More »
