In his column today, Thomas Sowell comes to the defense of our friends at the American Enterprise Institute, currently under attack by the inhabitants of Planet Gore.

So the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme is two years old. How’s it doing?

As US states mull setting up their own market to trade in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, they are casting a worried eye on the almighty crash in the European Union’s Emissions Trading System, the first and so far only significant market in carbon.

A year ago, CO2 was changing hands in the ETS at 30 euros (HK$304.30) a tonne, triple that at the market’s launch in January 2005.

Today, a tonne of CO2 can be bought for little more than one euro.

That’s the trouble with this market — if the price is high, emissions reduce, but customers face the squeeze and the carbon companies grow rich (as explained here by Fred Smith), but if the price is low, nothing much happens.

A far better way to reduce emissions would be by means of a carbon tax. The fact that so few people are talking about that — even in tax-happy Europe — speaks volumes about the seriousness of the issue.

Did you buy your special someone flowers for Valentine’s Day? If you answered yes, you, too, are part of the global-warming problem.

Oscar-nominee Al should offer classes on how to keep the spark alive even as the planet warms.

From Al Gore and Laurie David to the UN’s IPCC report and Nancy Pelosi’s special global warming committee, global warming is one of the most talked-about and contentious public policy issues of the day. We are constantly told, as Rep. Henry Waxman recently claimed, that “it is one of the most important public policy issues facing our nation and the world.” But the hyped-up rhetoric doesn’t always accurately reflect the complexity of the issue. That’s where Planet Gore comes in. NRO has gathered a team of experts to report and comment on the myriad scientific and economic issues surrounding the global warming debate. So check back regularly for informed news and views about climate change, alternative energy, environmental activism, and of course, Al Gore’s carbon footprint.