Free Enterprise Beats Government Regulations & Creates Jobs

The extreme environmentalists paint conservatives as opposed to the environment.  That is simply not true, what we do support is a balance in the solutions.

The extremists want a Cap and Trade bill that will kill jobs.  Cap and Trade is a tax that, at a minimum, will cost the same amount as the Healthcare Bill.  At least $1 trillion, maybe as high as $3 trillion.  Those are big numbers. To put it in some sort of perspective, if you were trying to spend just one trillion dollars you would have to spend a million dollars a day - for more than 2740 years!  We simply cannot afford to spend that kind of money.

Tax increases kill jobs

The bigger the tax increase, the more jobs that are killed.  Generally, I believe the free market will solve the problems on their own.

To that point, I had a fellow visit in the office recently.  He has started a business which takes CO2 out of the atmosphere.  It also takes natural gas out of a stream of emissions.  That is a multiple point win.  No one wants extraneous gases loose in our atmosphere and his new business eliminates that.  The important thing about it is that it captures and gives the natural gas back to the company that he is working for.  They sell the gas to pay for his service - and his service is cleaning up the atmosphere.

No jobs lost, in fact, the company cleaning up its emissions is financially stronger, and it continues to be competitive in the international market.  We also end up with a greater supply of American energy so we import less oil.  The service company hires people to provide a service.  But that's not even the best part.

None of this costs YOU, the taxpayer, a single dime

Taxes are not increased to pay for this activity.  In fact, if you use natural gas in your home, you will see a price decrease in your product because when we capture the gas, there is more gas to be sold on the market, and greater supply drives the price down.

But the wins do not stop there.  Let's say the company reclaiming the natural gas is Exxon-Mobile.  They have created a new revenue stream without incurring any new fixed investment cost.  Because they are finding new efficiencies in their business, their stock price will increase.  Hundreds of thousands of retirees, mutual funds, 401k's, teacher pension funds and other pension funds will benefit from stronger portfolios.  Retirees have a more dependable retirement income.

The country experiences better economic times

When the country is stronger economically, you and I experience a better standard of living because we choose a market solution to the environmental problem.  This is why free market solutions are always better than anything the government can come up with.  Everyone wins, more jobs are created, standards of living rise and the environment is far better off.

On the other hand, Europe imposed Cap and Trade rules.  The European solution to getting CO2 out of the atmosphere was a tax solution not a market solution.  Taxes kill jobs.  Europe is now losing jobs.

This, in a nut shell is the whole cap and trade argument you hear so much about.  It is not nearly as complicated as people want it to sound.  It is about fundamental economics.  Economics is not complex.

So when people tell you conservatives do not care about the environment, take it with a grain of salt. 

What conservatives want are:

• A clean environment
• A healthy economy
• More jobs.

And we can have all of those at the same time.  Entrepreneurs operating in a free market economy can develop products, services and systems that make all of those possible.  Somehow, the socialists have got it in their head that if Exxon-Mobile makes a profit, the country is worse off.  Not true.  If we tell any company the operating conditions, then let them operate, they can do it. 

We all benefit from their cleaning of the atmospheric releases, their financial strength and the jobs they create. This nation has killed entire industries in the name of the environment.  We cannot continue to do that.  Industry killing regulations and taxes have cost us too many jobs.  Unemployment is at 10%.  We must start reclaiming some of those jobs we have lost. 

An industry I would work to reclaim is the timber industry.  I talked about this previously in the article: The Environment, Jobs, And Conservatives.

We want healthy forests. We can do that and create jobs in the timber industry.  Here in New Mexico timber used to provide 23,000 jobs.  Today we have no more timber mills.  Think how many more people we could have working if that industry had not been killed. 

The state legislature is currently in session in Santa Fe.  New Mexico faces massive budget shortfalls.  They are discussing raising your taxes again.  Would it not be better for everyone if they just encouraged new jobs, letting those jobs pick up the tax tab rather than raising your taxes? 

Free market solutions will be a far better approach than higher taxes and bigger government.  The free market approach to cleaning up the environment will be far better for all of us.