This isn't the first stupid thing Boxer has said. So we should give up the pipeline, and it's thousands of jobs, and let the Chinese get the oil based on some actuary's findings? TTH, I think you would have a tough time recognizing intelligence.
How many deaths are acceptable, since we won't be able to eliminate death? And since Senator Boxer knows who these people are that will die, why don't we just contact them and tell them to move?
The fact is they don't want the economy to get better if the Republicans get credit for it. Plain and simple. It's too bad the Republicans are the same way.
Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy
Increased gasoline use means increased deaths from pollution. Period. That is not in dispute. How many are acceptable is a policy question. The best answer, in my opinion, is to internalize the external costs of the gasoline -- environmental damage, increased carbon emissions, deaths from pollution, etc. -- into the price of the gasoline. That's the concept behind a carbon tax, just like all Pigouvian taxes. Then, assuming that you have appropriately placed a value on the lives lost, the cost of global warming, etc., the market will make the correct decision on how many is too many.
If you are not familial with Pigouvian taxes, you should be:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigouvian_tax
And no one knows which particular people will die. If we did, they we could internalize the costs by suing the oil companies and having their death be included in the costs of gasoline that way.
But I can't think of a single reason that as a country we should do anything to make the price of any carbon based energy cheaper. Can you?