Green to Gold on TV

Sorry I didn't mention this before... this evening at 9pm on CNBC will be a discussion including Dan Esty. I believe included in the discussion will be his new book Green to Gold. I haven't read his book, but I have read several articles that mention it. And if I have a correct understanding of the premise of the book, it is a stroke of genius. (Btw, it's not just me saying this. Click here to see the Amazon reviews of his book.)

It sells traditionally liberal issues (going green & protecting the environment) from a traditionally conservative viewpoint (avoid legislation and let the free market decide). That is, I think the book is predicated on the notion that private businesses can make money by being green-friendly.

As I've mentioned before, that was very much part of the reason why I bought my (Consumer Reports-recommended) Civic Hybrid. So I'm sure this strategy will work for companies.

Tim White

UPDATE: I just watched a bit of the CNBC show. Partly contrary to what I posted above, Dan made the case for some gov't intervention/regulation in the energy marketplace. I think his argument was that the free markets have not progressed quickly enough over the past few decades. And that a gov't standard or framework would be worthwhile at this point.

Obviously the devil is in the details, but generally, I agree with him. Case in point... it's estimated that 90% of global oil reserves are owned by foreign governments. And since oil is a commodity... gov't needs to be involved in energy (in this case, oil) to some extent.

One example of a gov't standard or framework that I would support is increasing the CAFE standards for cars.