Even if prices were to increase, so what?

The GOP's and/or their constituents' expectations that prices on anything will never go up is ridiculous. The expectation that jobs will never be destroyed is ridiculous. This is how economies work and what progress looks like. In a best case scenario, we simply kick the can further down the road; it is inevitable that the prices of natural resources will only continue to go up as their scarcity and the cost of pilfering them goes up. In a worst case scenario, prices go up as the GOP claims and we now have a huge economic incentive to develop renewable energy resources which will hopefully lead us to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly suite of energy sources. That's not to say that there wouldn't be growing pains - there absolutely would be. There were growing pains during the industrial revolution, though, and surely no one thinks using steam engines instead of manual labor was a bad idea.

I see this argument simply as an attempt to rationalize global warming "not being real" or other nonsense like that. As usual, the GOP begins with a conclusion and argues from there. Anyone with half a brain can recognize that most of their bullshit is just that. Unfortunately their constituents don't seem to be able to figure it out.

I say all this, by the way, as a relatively conservative guy at heart. But we need to address the very real fact that burning all this shit is almost certainly destroying the environment and the ecosystem; the degree to which that is happening is really the only point of contention among non-idealogues. I really don't understand how that can be refuted. Is this going to solve everything? Of course not. But, as Bill Nye is quoted, "it's a good first step - let's get started." I agree.