Krugman: Get Ready for Climate Lies

If you liked the health care debate, you’re going to love the upcoming battle over climate change, says Paul Krugman. The House has already passed a decent bill, but the Senate battle will bring out “the usual suspects.” Some will keep insisting that global warming isn’t real. “But that argument is wearing thin—as thin as the Arctic pack ice,” which you can now drive ships through.

So instead, most opponents will argue that reducing emissions would cost too much. But those claims “are as bogus, in their own way, as climate denial.” The House bill would cost the average family just $160 a year by 2020, or 0.2% of income, according to CBO estimates. Opponents keep spouting more dire estimates, but they’re not based on competing findings. They’re based on lies. “The truth is that it’s relatively easy being green.”