Bob Inglis, a conservative perspective on climate change and energy innovation

A conservative politician who believes free enterprise is the ubiquitous answer isn?t all that special. But what about a conservative politician who?s dedicated his efforts to combating the risk from climate change? That?s special enough to have earned Bob Inglis an invitation to speak at PennFuture?s ?Creating America?s Clean Energy Hub? conference later this month.

To be fair, Inglis isn?t a politician anymore. The founder of the Energy and Enterprise Initiative at George Mason University was a six-term Republican Congressman from South Carolina who lost his re-election bid to a Tea Party candidate in 2010. He?s since refocused on getting conservatives to accept climate change as fact and encouraging innovation in energy to combat its risk.

The answer, he says, is a tax swap ? instead of an income tax, let?s have a carbon pollution tax. Remove all energy subsidies and make the entire cost of each fuel transparent to consumers.

?I believe that the cost crashes from the innovation would power an energy revolution faster than any government mandate or fickle tax incentives,? he said.

I talked with Inglis last week about his organization?s mission, the presidential race, and his reception in the business world.

The mission statement of the Energy and Enterprise Initiative says you don?t subscribe to an apocalyptic view of climate change. What does that mean?

?That the end is near, that we are done for and that emergency action is necessary. That tends to really drive away conservatives because conservatives dismiss it as fear mongering. What we prefer to do is to say the science is clear ?? there?s a very real risk that we?re running and doesn?t it make sense to reduce that risk? We?re talking reasonable risk avoidance rather than rhetoric that the sky is falling, we need to turn off all the lights right now.

Anya Litvak covers energy, transportation, gaming, engineering and construction. Contact her at alitvak@bizjournals.com or (412) 208-3824.
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