And Nolan gets testy

Matt Nolan over at TVHE posted the other day a take-down of the Greens' latest energy policy. I'd given it only a quick skim as there's little chance anything the Greens currently are proposing has a chance of making it into policy and I do have opportunity costs of time. And, Seamus is far more the electricity industry guy anyway.

Nolan argued reasonably that Green policy seems more focused on redistributive ends and social justice campaigns rather than environmental concerns; he wished for a new Green party that would focus more strongly on environmental concerns and leave the other stuff to one side.

It's not particularly surprising that a Green Party here winds up being a coalition of environmentalists and social justice campaigners: the set of voters who care about the environment AND who are happy with property rights based solutions (you know, the kind that actually work) is near empty (I don't vote; I'm not sure if Roger Beattie votes; Nolan probably does; not sure if Brendan votes ...is there anyone else?) while the set of voters who care about the environment and who also have a bunch of other mixed bag social justice concerns is pretty large. Just look at the usual motley assortment of placards at the random environmentalist rally.

But Nolan since pointed back to the discussion going on there in the comments, where he and his co-bloggers have been eviscerating the Green Party's representative who's there been defending their energy policy. I'm not sure I've seen Matt get testy like this before: it's kinda fun. I'll not be weighing in as I haven't read the Greens' current proposal, but I'd be surprised if Nolan here were wrong. Go and enjoy if you follow TVHE but haven't been watching the fight.