Each year, policy makers survey the economic and political landscape before commencing the hard work of refashioning molehills into mountains (and vice versa). While we enjoy celebrating lofty goals and smart ideas, from time to time it’s important to acknowledge the bad and the ugly along with the good. What follows is a list of policies that, frankly, we wish we’d never heard of.
Clean Coal: Both Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama promoted coal-powered electricity this year, never more so than when stumping through the carbon-loaded swing states of Virginia and Ohio. While “clean coal” doesn’t actually exist, there is abundant and growing evidence that global warming is real, and that coal emissions are a prime contributor to rising temperatures. This is not the way to power the future.
