Everyone at LRC probably knows Gabriel Kolko's important thesis, spelled out most explicitly in his classic The Triumph of Conservatism, about the Progressive Era largely being the result of big business pushing for more regulation to protect and extend their influence and financial empires.

This has long been the position of the wonderful and wonderfully iconoclastic leftist Alexander Cockburn toward the proposed war on climate change.

David Theroux writes: "Here is an article by Steve Milloy re the Supreme Court decision and the reality of the interest-group dynamic re climate politics."

"This relates directly to Yandle's earlier peices[1] [2]in [The Independent Review] re climate and environmental rent-seeking.

"I believe what we are seeking now is a climate corporatism (corporate statism) rearing its ugly head, and as with the Progressive Era earlier, being supported by fear, ignorance, and true-believing ideological collectivists."

In particular, Milloy points out:

[T]he spectrum of special interests clamoring for global warming regulation has significantly expanded, most importantly to big businesses that are now driving the debate — in Congress and not at the EPA. Through its legislative power, Congress can not only mandate emissions reductions, but more importantly, it can also dole out the global warming pork.

Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley want Congress to establish a so-called cap-and-trade system so that they can profit from the trading of greenhouse gas emissions permits. Industrial giants such as Dupont and Alcoa want Congress to give them “carbon credits” — essentially free money — for greenhouse gas emissions reductions already undertaken. Solar and wind energy firms, as well as the ethanol lobby, want Congress to award them subsidies and tax breaks.