Thread by @Coyoteblog

1/ For years, I have been active in the climate skeptic community. Several years ago I proposed a CO2 reduction plan. Why did I do that? At the time I got a lot of crap from other skeptics for being a turncoat

coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/20…

2/ The first reason is that, like most climate skeptics, I don't deny manmade warming, I just believe warming rates have been exaggerated and kock-on effects like growth in droughts, tornadoes and hurricanes have been enormously exaggerated.

3/ It probably makes sense to avoid warming and to create an insurance policy against catastrophic climate change, however unlikely, IF that insurance policy could be purchased inexpensively. I thought it could

4/ The second reason was that a part of our CO2 output, particularly from coal, could be traced to bad past government policy. Starting in 1974, the US Congress required that new power plants be coal fired and essentially banned cleaner natural gas plans

coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/20…

5/ Since that time, government energy and environmental policy related to energy has been universally terrible. The government has spent billions subsidizing various technologies (e.g. ethanol) based more on political considerations than a prioritization of costs and benefits

6/ The third reason was on display last night -- the climate plans proposed by the Democratic front-runners were universally insane. Even a progressive like Kevin Drum can see it. But one of these people will likely be President

motherjones.com/kevin-drum/201…

7/ People often say that politics are more broken today than in the past. My answer is yes and no. If one reads history, she would be shocked at the vitriol in US politics and the bare knuckle tactics that were in the past, some of which we would never tolerate today

8/ But one thing that has changed is that both parties used to be good a defuzing hot issues. Look at what happened to the Populist and Progressive parties-- they died because both the Republican & Democratic parties adopted key parts of their platforms, but in more moderate ways

9/ Rather than saying NO to all climate action, the Republicans should have been playing judo with this issue and educating the public on less costly ways to achieve these goals. A few tried -- @JeffFlake proposed a plan similar to mine, and you see what happened to him

10/ For example, I don't believe any person who actually cares about prosperity or particularly the lowest income people of the world can propose a plan that does not include nuclear to tackle CO2 emissions, but instead all the Dem. candidates want to shut down what we have

11/ I encourage you to check out my plan. Somehow we need to rally folks to a non-Maoist vision for government climate action, or else we are all going to be learning what the peasants experienced in the Great Leap Forward

coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/20…