I was pleased to see the Star Tribune reprint of Robert Frank's commentary on the conservative roots of carbon capping legislation, originally published in the New York Times. For those who missed reading it, Frank is at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University. His op-ed summarizes the writing of Ronald H. Coase, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago and the 1990 Nobel laureate in economics, on the topic of correcting market failure by internalizing environmental externalities.

One quote in particular highlights the reason that many conservative leaders describe when they identify the need to price carbon in the marketplace:

"In the case of global warming, markets fail because we don't take into account the costs our CO2 emissions impose on others. The least intrusive way to have us weigh those costs is by taxing emissions, or by requiring tradable emissions permits. Either step would move us closer to the conservative/libertarian gold standard--namely, the outcome we'd see if there were perfect information and no obstacles to free exchange."

Read the commentary in full here.