Change incentives

This newspaper's editorial on June 26 opposing the Waxman-Markey climate bill was all too predictable. Thankfully, you at least recognized that a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is desirable. But as someone who strongly supports the power of markets — free trade, immigration, low corporate taxes — I was appalled that you forgot about a topic in Econ 101: externalities and price signals. The simplest way to balance competing economic and environmental interests is to make the immediate actors feel the costs wrought on society at large by their actions, like burning fossil fuels.

The question is not whether the free market or a guided market lets inventiveness thrive. They both do. The question is what kind of inventiveness do we seek: cheaper clean energy or more ways to use dirty energy? To change behaviors, you have to change incentives.

Kyle Cooper

Centerville