What We Could Do - Stolen Future, Broken Present: The Human Significance of Climate Change - page 28

an “ecosystem for energy innovation” by developing “an intelligently
designed system of policies, tax incentives and disincentives, and regula-
tions …” 58 But so far, no such system is in place, and as a result the new
energy economy has not yet taken off. Some new technologies are avail-
able, and in those cases, we should move without delay—to build biogas
plants, for example, to shift to a new generation of industrial engines, and
to improve efficiencies in our households. But to surmount the difficulty
on a vast scale will require enormous political will. Even that is an under-
statement, since that political will can come from only one place, a huge
upwelling of popular support for these changes.
Everything in this discussion thus comes down to the political situ-
ation in nations around the world, but especially in America, still the
world's dominant economy and one of the leading contributors to cli-
mate change, where taking action has proved especially difficult. Yes,
the American public believes that human beings are causing climate
change by huge margins. But it clearly hates any increase in taxes, even
if a tax is meant to forestall climate change. According to Jon Krosnick,
in a poll conducted in early 2009 which found that around 74 percent
of the American public thought that global warming was taking place
and that it was caused by human activity, majorities of 78 percent and
72 percent, respectively, opposed federal taxes on electricity and gasoline
to reduce consumption. But majorities of 80 to 84 percent favored tax
breaks of various kinds to encourage renewable energy and energy effi-
ciency. 59 The poll unsurprisingly reflects the public distaste for taxes and
love of tax breaks that has been familiar in American politics since the
late 1970s. But by sticking with that preference in this case, most citizens
choose incremental, piecemeal changes over anything more systematic.
They seem to believe that if we improve technology, encourage industries
to increase efficiency, and invite people to insulate their homes, we'll be
doing fine. Unfortunately, that belief is simply untrue.
We have failed to make progress in shifting to a new energy economy
over the last decade because most of us make our decisions accord-
ing to the laws of the marketplace. We want cheap energy: oil, coal, and
gas. The only effective way to change our practice across the board is to
tax all the sources of greenhouse gas, impose a cap-and-trade system on
those sources (as Congress debated in 2009-2010), or create a rationing