Trick Box

In an otherwise rather interesting opinion piece entitled Oil Insanity, Molly Ivins has entered the energy independence trick-box. She writes:

If you put a tax on carbon, it would move industry to wind or solar power. Wind power here in Texas is at the tipping point now - comparably priced. Our health, our environment, our economy and the globe itself would all benefit from a transition to renewable energy sources.

A progressive like Ivins will need to consider the regressive ramifications of a carbon tax. In other words, not every class in our society would look favorably to such a move, especially the low-income forced to pay a premium at the expense of solar-outfitted ranches in Crawford.

We might find more trick-boxes in the future. Historically, we have avoided poor outcomes based on having run across them before. In all likelihood uncharted territory lies ahead.

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Ivins also quotes from the Apollo Project:

The Apollo Project, a sensible outfit dedicated to reducing America's dependence on foreign oil, says 90 percent of Americans support its goal of energy independence. Bracken Hendricks, the executive director, points out that there is "remarkable agreement among many so-called strange bedfellows - labor and business, environmentalists and evangelicals, governors and generals, urbanites and farmers."

I signed up for Apollo's mailing list and have received emails regularly, but apart from a paper called "The Death of Environmentalism", which had a marginally controversial tone, I can't decipher their objectives beyond some general platitudes.