You're going to hear a lot of nonsense from the usual suspects about how Biden's proposal to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030 will bankrupt us, destroy jobs, yada yada yada.

Important to realize that making apocalyptic predictions is a strategy to win the policy argument. That's why, for example, prior to the election Trump predicted that Biden would tank the economy. That has not, by the way, happened.

These predictions of economic disaster are usually bad-faith arguments based on nothing but the realization that their audience will believe it.

Those making this argument are the true alarmists in the debate.

As an example, when we were debating the phase out of chlorofluorocarbons that destroy ozone, here's what Fred Singer wrote:

In reality, the phase out of CFCs in the 1990s was so cheap and easy that no one noticed. It was even cheaper than the most optimistic predictions.

That's also true of acid rain — solving that was also far cheaper than even the optimists expected.

So don't listen to the alarmists. Rather, listen to history. If you do that, it seems v. likely that reducing emissions will be achievable without hurting the economy.

The key is take the first step. Once we do that, people will want more progress.