Hayward on Romney on Energy
Posted in Economy by Justin Paulette
Our own promiscuously-blogging enviro-guru Steven Hayward has a
takedown at Power Line of "Romney's frequent slavishness to the conventional wisdom" on America's comparative energy efficiency. Hayward gets to the heart of both the issue and Romney's likely problem among conservatives - we aren't trailing Europe in any contest of importance to us and we're tired of hearing the contrary from our leaders. Pawlenty's economic speech invoked American exceptionalism - Romney's energy speech fawned over European eco-policies. Not only are Romney's facts and loyalties erroneous, his tone and instincts seem to be deeply flawed.
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Excellent! This was my favorite comment, and it came from a Brit!
"...no one should expect him to govern as a conservative if elected--and conservatives should be asking someone else to step in, rather than him to step up."
I liked this, about the economics of efficiency,
"Invent a more efficient light bulb. Invent a car that gets 50 mpg. Invent a low flow toilet. Invent all the more efficient products you want. If they can compete in the marketplace they will reward their inventors with millions. Simply leave me alternatives. Don't force me to buy some crappy light bulb because you think that is what I should do. Don't put outrageous taxes on gas trying to force me to buy some 50 mpg sewing machine with wheels."
Everyone (except for the fool) is really interested in conserving scarce resources (time, money, energy, good stuff of all kinds) for themselves. But the trade-offs between one kind of conservation and another become complicated; I don't want to spend my time, which is a non-renewable resource, waiting for my electric car to charge so I can drive inefficiently conserving other scarce resources which are easier for me to replace.
What is the saying, "Penny-wise and pound-foolish."?
If Romney, or anyone, thinks America is the same kind of place as Europe then he has spent entirely too much time flying over the nation and not enough time being in it.
The Democrats fear Romney because they know he can win. That is good enough for me.
Conservatives should probably fear Romney for the same reason.