Here is one simple, inconvenient truth: No developing country with significant and remotely accessible stocks of fossil fuels will agree to leave the stuff in the ground.
“Ten countries ruled by nasty people control 80 percent of the planet’s oil reserves — about 1 trillion barrels, currently worth about $40 trillion,” writes energy expert Peter Huber in City Journal. “If $40 trillion worth of gold were located where most of the oil is, one could only scoff at any suggestion that we might somehow persuade the nasty people to leave the wealth buried. They can lift most of their oil at a cost well under $10 a barrel. They will drill. They will pump. And they will find buyers. Oil is all they’ve got.”
It’s not just the nasty countries. Canada, the Dudley Do-Right of the international community, insists on exploiting its vast and dirty oil reserves in the “tar sands” under Alberta. The intro to an article by British eco-scold George Monbiot declared: “Canada’s image lies in tatters. It is now to climate what Japan is to whaling.” If Canada, which has long been the UN’s Richie Cunningham, won’t play ball, does anyone think the Chinese, Indians or Brazilians will?
Here’s another inconvenient truth: The United States will not agree to draconian carbon caps either — for the simple reason it would be political suicide for all but a handful of politicians. Unless you represent hyper-wealthy liberal enclaves or the ethanol industry, it makes no sense to vote for anything like cap-and-trade.
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