"Those who dismiss ideas like the "green new deal" as mere left-wing fantasies miss the enormous appeal of these programs for corporations looking for new business opportunities. It isn't only renewable energy companies looking for government mandates and funding. It's major auto manufacturers dreaming of replacing every gasoline-powered car and truck on the planet with an electric vehicle -- and reaping the public-relations reward of looking virtuous. It's construction companies looking to replace the existing energy infrastructure.
Industry will also gain power over climate policy as climate moves up the world's priority list. Business lobbies around the world are experts in regulatory capture and in diverting subsidies and mandates to serve corporate interests. It won't be the greenest possible grid that wins the political contest; it will be the system that provides the most-entrenched interests with the highest rents that the best PR firms can present as sufficiently green. As lobbyists and green entrepreneurs rush to cash in on one of history's greatest bonanzas, pigs will be adorned in green lipstick and white elephants dipped in green dye.
When it comes to determining priorities in our new green world, one thing's for sure. The polar bears won't get a vote." [1]
1. The Polar Bear Paradox
Walter Russell Mead. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]23 Feb 2021: A.13.
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