Genuine conservatives (as opposed to the Bush administration) have been pointing to the need for conservation of fossil fuel supplies and innovation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for some time now, but this is really a shocker. The prominent conservative Niall Ferguson calls not just for the usual measures of reducing emissions, but for flat across-the-board regulation.
He makes some good points (although most observers I’ve read think that Europe’s cap-and-trade program has not been given enough time or support to work properly).
Regardless, enviros must welcome this call for emissions regulation from the right. It’s a little surrealistic, like seeing Dick Cheney limp out of his bunker and endorse the Geneva Conventions, but heck, I’ll take it.
Kit Stolz 