The Climate-Industrial Complex

This is a new twist on a very old practice: companies using public policy to line their own pockets.

We are told that very expensive carbon regulations are the only way to respond to global warming, despite ample evidence that this approach does not pass a basic cost-benefit test. We must ask whether a "climate-industrial complex" is emerging, pressing taxpayers to fork over money to please those who stand to gain.

The opening keynote address is to be delivered by Al Gore, who actually represents all three groups: He is a politician, a campaigner and the chair of a green private-equity firm invested in products that a climate-scared world would buy.

But research shows that each new job cost Spain 571,138 euros

programs resulted in the destruction of nearly 110,000 jobs elsewhere in the economy

, or 2.2 jobs for every job created.