"There's a Lot of Rich People Backing This Cause"

"That big players in global energy should be in cahoots with environmentalists and climate change alarmists came as something of a shock to Horner. 'Though I was a fully grown man, I had yet to understand the concept of"rent seeking" or even these"baptist and bootlegger" coalitions.' Just as prohibitionists and drink smugglers had a common interest in maintaining a ban on alcohol, so big companies that want massive subsidies for renewable energy schemes and the right to sell emissions permits – the nearest thing yet to selling thin air – can find common ground with those who want us all to reduce our 'carbon footprints'."

"'[Global warming] allows [politicians] the option of cheap virtue – cheap to them, expensive to us – of satisfying constituencies for something that's never solved. They get to emote and spend; there's something in it for everyone.'"

Rob Lyons reviews Christopher C. Horner's Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud and Deception to Keep You Misinformed (Regnery, 2008).