Paying the Costs of the Kyoto Protocol Climate Treaty

Yesterday, I went to a talk, "Partnerships for Clean Development, Energy Security and Climate Change," by the chairman of President Bush's Council on Environmental Quality, James Connaughton at the American Enterprise Institute. Generally Connaughton was describing various Bush Administration policies to research and address climate change, but leaving those aside, he made an very interesting observation. He pointed out that the recent run ups in the prices of oil and natural gas basically equaled what the cost of complying with the Kyoto Protocol would have been.

Critics of that climate change treaty have been concerned about the economic damage that complying with it would have caused. However, the economy has continued to hum along quite nicely despite the rise in fuel prices.

Discuss.