Chances are you haven't seen the video on youtube titled "If I wanted America to fail" which has the tagline: "The environmental agenda has been infected by extremism—it's become an economic suicide pact. And we're here to challenge it. " It was produced by a group called Free Market America which is a project of Americans for Limited Government and Citizens for Lower Taxes and a Stronger Economy.  The narrator of the video lists off all of the things he would do if he wanted America to fail; which largely focus on energy and environmental regulations.  The producers of the video believe that America should be unshackled from the chains of energy and environmental regulations, and only then can we prosper.  Well I'm here to tell you they're wrong.

First, let me say that there is a very fine line between too little and too much regulation, but it is an important line that deserves intelligent debate and decision making, not right-wing populist propaganda videos. I'm not an environmental extremist, nor do I consider myself a liberal.  But I am observant enough to realize that if fossil fuel energy companies operated without any regulation, the great nation of the United States of America would be a much dirtier, nastier place to live.   Even with some regulation, the true cost of coal is much more than what is revealed with our cheap electricity rates.

To call for simply doing away with regulation is ignorance.  Those who lament the lack of a "free market" obviously don't understand energy policy and the nuances of externalities.  Do you think utilities operate in a free market?  Do I and many Americans have a choice where they buy their electricity from?  Can I choose to buy electricity that doesn't pollute the air I breathe or scar the Appalachian mountains?  No, I can't, because the utility has a monopoly on customers in my region.  That is far from a free market.  And yet this video would have viewers pity the poor utility harmed by evil environmental regulations (that make our air cleaner to breath and limit the days children with asthma spend in hospitals during smog alert days in the summer).

The funniest and most ironic (unintentional as it was) piece of the video is this little gem:

(If I wanted America to fail...) I'd devise fictitious products like carbon credits and trade them in imaginary markets. I'd convince people that this would create jobs and be good for the economy.... Read more