But let’s start by accenting the positive.  Krugman’s explanation of mainstream environmental economics is clear and powerful.  He recognizes that there really are a lot of free energy lunches lying around uneaten, in the form of potential efficiency improvements.  He knows that predictions of economic disaster due to carbon policy are without foundation and fail to take into account the potential for innovation.  Above all, he understands that investments in minimizing climate change offer valuable insurance against potentially catastrophic outcomes—the ice-sheet meltoffs and methane megabelches that we have little ability to predict and from which we would have little …

It’s easy to understand. We’ve had eight years of across-the-board hostility to sustainability investments by Bush & Co., and before that eight years of promises with no follow-through by the Clinton crowd. Now green groups are dazzled by the prospect of hundreds of billions of new dollars for mass transit, energy efficiency, and other projects, courtesy of carbon auctions. Their websites overflow with starry visions of how all this money can be spent, reminding us of all the pent-up needs from decades of neglect. This strategy is deeply mistaken, and it risks pushing serious action against climate change many more …