> The free market is an engine to optimize profit Agreed. > Regulation levels the playing field. Only for the parties playing on that field. > Otherwise, we

> The free market is an engine to optimize profit Agreed. > Regulation levels the playing field. Only for the parties playing on that field. > Otherwise, we would still have child labor, weekend work, dangerous working conditions, etc. We still do, in countries that don't play on that field. > If the US government imposed regulations that all business must act in a sustainable fashion (including the supply chain) the rest of the world would have to follow through. And where exactly is the rest of the world buying its supplies from? Where were the things inside your home, inside your pockets, on your body made? Only the minority of wealthy people buy ethically produced goods. Disobeying the free market creates inefficiencies in supply and demand which are always taken advantage of. You don't fight the free market, its an equation that can't be changed. You forget the black market exists in which regulations by definition have no domain. Are the goods you bought off amazon suddenly in compliance with US regulations just because you as a US citizen bought them? No, not at all, yet you and millions of americans buy these goods. Cheaper energy always means cheaper production costs. In the end its up to the side who puts up the regulations to pay for that inefficiency. And we will most definitely be paying for it one way or another whether its through taxes, job losses, currency devaluation, quality of life, meanwhile someone somewhere will take advantage of lower costs to production and put that carbon into the atmosphere. I'm not in denial of climate change, I just don't believe policy will save us from it. Its like trying to put a fence around a forest fire.