In an editorial in the Washington Post in criticism of the European Unions flailing environmental policy one passage leapt out at me:
The centerpiece of the European Union’s climate plan — indeed, the only major climate policy that acts across all member countries — is a slowly declining continent-wide cap on emissions. By allowing companies to buy, sell and bank permits to pollute under that cap, the program puts a price on European carbon dioxide emissions. Designed properly, the scheme should encourage companies and consumers to reduce the carbon-intensity of the goods they purchase and invest in cleaner alternatives.
But the Europeans didn’t design the policy properly. For a variety of reasons that E.U. officials should have anticipated, the market for carbon permits has all but collapsed. And in a Tuesday vote, the European Parliament rejected a slapdash rescue plan.
If the continent wants to rediscover its ambition on climate change, individual member states will probably have to do it on their own. But European governments have proved themselves to be incompetent central planners, counter-productive and wary of thinking pragmatically.
The emphasis is mine. There are no such things as competent central planners. The very idea is a contradiction in terms. The act of central planning obscures the economic signals that are necessary for successful central planning. Expecting to find competent central planners is the equivalent of mounting a search for the goofus bird, an imaginary creature that builds its nest upside down and flies backwards.
“For, although common Snarks do no manner of harm,
Yet, I feel it my duty to say,
Some are Boojums—” The Bellman broke off in alarm,
For the Baker had fainted away.
in a doff of the hat to a frequent commenter. Actually, they’re all Boojums.
