It Ain’t Easy Being Green

It’s no surprise that many free-market advocates were worried by President Bush’s speech on climate change last week (see here, for starters) — I know I wasn’t thrilled with it. But maybe he was hoping to bring some liberals (or, more likely, moderates) over to his side? Well, looks like his speech, which announced a goal of leveling off greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 didn’t have much success. Case in point, this Philadelphia Inquirer editorial, which can basically be summarized as "About time! But not good enough!"  This reaction is hardly surprising. Appeasement rarely works in the policy realm. As a former colleague used to say, when an alligator’s chasing you, the best solution is not to offer to feed it your leg.  So it looks like, with this announcement, Bush has alienated some of his supporters, but done little if anything to bring others into the fold.