“… the Democrats’ actions were the exact opposite of their words. They immediately launched an all-out attack, bringing in big money international corporate law firm Perkins and Coie in an effort to throw the Greens off the ballot.”
– Jill Stein (Green Party), Defend Democracy from Corporate Democrats, September 6, 2018.
The Green Party US (see platform statements on Energy, Climate Change, Nuclear, and Environmental Justice) has been plenty mad at the Democrat Party in this election season. In Defend Democracy from Corporate Democrats, Jill Stein of the Green Party wrote:
Last year a Montana Democratic Party spokesperson told the media “The Montana Democratic Party welcomes all voices to participate in the Democratic process — unlike the Montana GOP, which… has a record of trying to remove third-party candidates from the ballot.”
“Interestingly, (otherwise greenwashing) BP led the fight against the Washington State carbon-tax initiative, donating $9.5 million. It would be far more honest and effective for Big Oil (including Exxon Mobil) to come out against any and all carbon tax schemes in the name of consumer sovereignty.”
“Overall, free-market energy policy had a good day yesterday. The fossil-fuel boom in the marketplace has a political corollary. Call it a victory for blue-collar energy. And may it be another wake-up call that climate alarmism/forced energy transformation is a siren song, a futile crusade, of all cost and no benefit.”
Overall, yesterday was a good election for consumer-first, taxpayer-neutral, market-order energy policy. According to the American Energy Alliance, “the 2018 midterms were mostly positive for the cause of affordable, abundant energy through freer markets.”…
“‘Whether to do something or nothing’ is quite a retreat from the basic economic principle of realistically comparing costs and benefits. Washington States’ carbon tax proposal is all cost and no benefit. New administrative programs and higher across-the-board energy prices cannot be balanced by virtue signalling.”
“One can only hope that economists would put their game face on and do real analysis–and tell their funders that the right answer is better than the politically correct wrong answer.”
A recent letter-to-the-editor in the Wall Street Journal, “Debating Washington Carbon Tax Initiative,” made a number of points that invite further consideration. The subtitle of the piece was: “The real question in front of Washington voters is whether to do something, or nothing, about the risks of climate change.”
The letter by PhD economist Noah Kaufman of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy is parsed in red; my comments are indented.