No Kyoto in Kemp (Letter to the Editor)

I enjoy reading the Spectator, particularly “On the Prowl,” even though it sometimes strays out of the nonfiction category, and the May issue is a good case in point.

I can’t speak for Jude Wanniski (and he doesn’t speak for me), but everything I’ve ever heard from him on so-called “global warming” and the Kyoto Protocol issues has been completely dismissive of the “science” and economic lunacy behind this prototypical Al Gore eco-extremism. But don’t take my word for it: check out Jude’s “Memo on the Margin” web site (www.polyconomics.com), which posted a great Fred Singer piece deconstructing global warming theory back in February.

Fortunately I can speak for myself and will be doing a lot more of that on Kyoto, climate change, and the spread of global capitalism. As the Competitive Enterprise Institute announced on April 29, I have just joined that excellent organization as its first Distinguished Fellow. I am very enthusiastic about my new association with CEI because it will give me a great opportunity to speak out against the Kyoto-type mindset, which seems bent on putting international bureaucrats in charge of our economic and energy policies. The “global warming” scare is another tactic of environmental extremists and latter-day Malthusians to throttle individual initiative and democratic capitalism. I will be working closely with CEI President Fred Smith here and abroad to reinvigorate the forces of freedom against this kind of extremism.

As for political “experts” looking for “a slightly greener conservative wing” for the Republican Party, we already have it. It’s called free-market environmentalism. Check it out at CEI’s web site (www.cei.org;). If you haven’t heard about it, it is probably because we have not done a very good job of promoting our ideas — a situation I hope to help remedy.

Again, you have a great publication. I regret the unfortunate timing of your “On the Prowl” blurb, which made it more embarrassing to the Spectator than it needed to be.