The GOP Killed Cap-and-Trade

Ross Douthat at The Times admits that the GOP is responsible for cap-and-trade’s failure in the Senate, but he thinks his party is demonstrating “the wisdom of inaction” vis-a-vis climate change. “The evidence that carbon emissions are altering the planet’s ecology is too convincing to ignore,” says Douthat. “Conservatives who dismiss climate change as a hoax are making a spectacle of their ignorance. But this doesn’t mean that we should mourn the death of cap-and-trade. It’s possible that the best thing to do about a warming earth—for now, at least—is relatively little.”