Young Republicans Concerned About Environment

A recent survey showed that a lot of younger people who identify as Republicans are concerned about the environment.  Why is this news?  Without delving into how the survey was constructed, or if it was biased or not, I think the question itself is sort of dumb.  It’s sort of like wondering if people that are for Second Amendment rights are worried about mass shootings.  If you are a human, you should be concerned about the environment.  No one wants to live in a trash dump.

This sort of survey is trying to paint one side of the debate as climate trashers, and elevate the other side as some sort of angelic force for good.  Just an FYI, China has one of the worst climates in the world.  Hint, it’s not a free country.

I am a Republican, although not a “young” Republican anymore.  For my entire life I have been concerned about the environment.  I think Republicans need to frame the issue differently and argue differently.  Currently, all the arguments for a better environment center on increasing the size and scope of government intervention in our lives.  We know that will create all kinds of lobbies that will feed on themselves.  Again, if you don’t understand Professor George Stigler’s research on regulatory capture, you need to understand it.  Government bureaucrats and the lobbyists that work for them are not independent arbiters of truth, justice and the American way.  They are not angels.  When you go from a non-profit to a government agency, or from a for-profit to a government agency, you don’t automatically become King Solomon.

Republicans need to argue about the environment in terms of freedom of choice, and illustrating how the free enterprise system and innovation will achieve greater gain than any government regulator.  Coase theory works.  Especially when it comes to environmental issues.  Coase Theorem is a free market, free enterprise focused idea that Republicans ought to be able to rally around.  Unless they are “establishment Republicans”.

For example, suppose you think global warming is or could be a threat. You might believe the science is settled, or you might be unsure.  You might even think it’s not a threat.  Instead of pointing fingers and demeaning each faction, why not find something useful everyone can get behind where it is win-win-win?

Currently, all the talk is about solar and wind.  Where is the chatter about nuclear power?  Natural gas?  They are cheap, clean sources of on demand energy for an on demand energy information economy. The cheaper we can make energy, the better all of our standards of living will be.  No one wants to go back to cutting down trees, splitting logs and burning it for energy and fuel.  Believe me, I just did some of that for the last five weeks and it’s a lot of work.

Why aren’t we decrying all the subsidies that go into all the efforts for all energy?  Let the free market work.  The free market creates a transparent price that will influence supply and demand.  The free market will spur innovation.  The free market always spurs innovation.  For a concrete example, just look at the fluidity and innovation in financial markets over time.  Finance is the single most innovative place in the economy because of free markets and competition.  It’s not gee-whiz innovation like you’d see in agriculture or medicine, but because of the nature of finance, the pace of innovation never stops.  Cryptocurrency is evidence of that and it will spur even more innovation than we can imagine in the next half-century.

Innovation raises standards of living and makes all of our lives better no matter who we are.  Government intervention generally curbs the pace of innovation.

At the same time, Republicans need to accept the failure that comes with trying.  For example, a couple of years ago I saw a Kickstarter about a solar road idea.  On the surface, it seemed pretty cool.  It got funded, but it failed.  Now, on many right-wing sites I see them making fun of the solar road.  Wrong tactic.  Failure when you are innovating isn’t a Scarlett Letter.  Embrace the failure and move on.  You do not get new innovation if you think in a straight line.  You must jump lines and only freedom of choice combined with free markets allows you to jump lines.