TANSTAAFL. The solutions for peak oil, global warming, etc are extremely costly. For example, the Waxman-Markey bill would impose significant indirect regulato

TANSTAAFL. The solutions for peak oil, global warming, etc are extremely costly. For example, the Waxman-Markey bill would impose significant indirect regulatory costs in addition to making electricity substantially more expensive (http://rollcall.com/news/36393-1.html?type=printer_friendly http://rollcall.com/news/36393-1.html?type=printer_friendly). For example, buying smaller, fuel-efficient cars will lead to more fatalities (http://iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4404.pdf http://iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4404.pdf). The cost of being wrong leading to misallocation of resources is being poorer, less competitive globally, and deader. It may indeed be worthwhile to pursue these mandated-change initiatives anyway since being right means being relatively rich, competitive, and alive, but the downside costs are certainly real. Just because the author grows some of his own food and enjoys bicycling and thus his behavior when wrong looks very much like his behavior when right doesn't mean that he and everyone else wouldn't be bearing the diffuse costs of being expensively wrong.