Conservatives Pitch Market-Oriented Environmental Vision at Duke Forum | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's note: The author of this fine report is Barry Smith, who is an associate editor of the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Taxes, market pricing, energy policy among topics discussed

    DURHAM     A former South Carolina congressman told an environmental forum that many conservatives don't think they can compete when it comes to visions for improving the environment. But he said they are mistaken.

    "We think this is territory staked out by the left," said former Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C. "They've got an answer; we don't."

    "Actually we have the answer that the country and the world are waiting for, which is a muscular, free enterprise answer to the energy and climate challenge," he said.

   Inglis said that the left could only offer sentiment on the issue, but not a real solution. He was the keynote speaker Monday at a forum titled "Conservative Visions for the Environment" at the Bryan University Center at Duke University.

    He drew an analogy to technology, which he said moved quickly because of free enterprise competition.

    "Expect speed, if you've got muscular free enterprise," he said.

    He said uncertainty in the marketplace is preventing power companies from proceeding with energy development.

    "They've got to have certainty on carbon pricing," Inglis said, adding that they didn't know whether to invest further in coal or move toward natural gas, nuclear power, or other forms of energy production.

    Inglis said public policy needs to promote accountability and eschew market distortions, such as offering incentives or cash subsidies for energy production.

    "Let's eliminate all subsidies for all fuels," Inglis said. "Let's attach all costs for all fuels."

    He also proposed a tax policy change, amounting to a tradeoff of income taxes for an added carbon tax.

    "Right now we tax income, but we don't tax emissions," Inglis said.

    That proposal drew some opposition from John Locke Foundation President John Hood, who followed Inglis during the Monday program.

    Hood said after Monday's forum that adding a carbon tax to the current tax structure would allow the federal government to grow, giving it a taxing power it does not exercise now.

    "The deal won't happen," Hood said. "And if it happens, it won't stick."

    Hood said the proposal of reducing the income tax wouldn't eliminate the tax entirely, allowing a future Congress to increase the income tax once again.

    "You haven't removed the old tax, you just reduced the rate," Hood said.

    Hood joined state Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson, and Christopher Ayers, a member of the N.C. Environmental Management Commission, to discuss North Carolina's energy future.

    Hood said that often when it comes to government policy, the road that looks right turns out not to be right.

    "Intentions are all well and good, but what really counts are results," Hood said. He said economic costs need to be taken into account when policy is established.

    "We may think we understand the costs," Hood said. "We may understate the costs, we tend to understate costs. As a result we don't get ideal outcomes."

    He offered as examples two major environmental bills in North Carolina, saying that their promises haven't been fulfilled.

    One was the 2003 Clean Smokestacks Bill aimed at addressing emissions from North Carolina's 14 coal-fired power plants. It was supposed to cost $2.3 billion to comply with, but will likely cost at least $4 billion, Hood said.

    "North Carolina's air quality was improving before the passage of Clean Smokestacks," Hood said. "It has continued to improve."

    He also said that a 2007 bill requiring power companies to produce a minimum amount of electricity from renewable energy sources. "The utility companies knew very well they could never meet this goal," Hood said. Indeed, they aren't going to be able to meet it, he said.

    McGrady said that the state needs an "energy policy that is pro jobs."

    He said he didn't support the bill passed this past session that moves the state toward hydraulic fracturing method for harvesting natural gas, but added that opponents of the method known as "fracking" have overstated its problems and dangers.

    Ayers noted that many factors go into making environmental and energy policy, and some get complex.

    For example, he noted that electric cars have to get their power from somewhere. And that source is electricity, which often comes from burning fossil fuels, Ayers said.