On Tuesday, May 19, 2015 the MIT Climate CoLab hosted a conversation on carbon pricing with George P. Shultz, former U.S. Secretary of State, currently at the Hoover Institution; Phil Sharp, former U.S. Representative (D-IN) and current President of Resources for the Future; and Bob Inglis, former U.S. Representative (R-SC) and current Director of RepublicEN, the advisors to their current carbon pricing contest (http://climatecolab.org:18081/...).
George Shultz recommended an alternative to divestment, asking universities to put their own internal price on carbon and use those funds within the university for efficiency and the zero carbon transition. He talks to his fellow Republicans about simple observation, ice loss in the Arctic, Antarctic, and Greenland, because it's not complicated science, not opinion, just observable phenomena. He advises consistent support for energy R&D and a revenue neutral carbon tax.
Bob Inglis, recent winner of the JFK Profile in Courage Award, described a progression from "I don't believe in climate change" to "I'm not a scientist" to "We can't do it, we're not China....", which he believes will be a short-lived position. He believes that it may soon become the question he likes to ask other Republicans, "Can free enterprise solve climate change?"
A good question.
The recording of the webinar can be found here (if this URL works):
https://mit.webex.com/...
https://mit.webex.com/...