Free-market advocates rejected market-based carbon pricing for political reasons.

Evidence

In Merchants of Doubt, Oreskes and Conway make the case that a straight line can be drawn from the “tobacco strategy” of the 1950s to today’s “controversy” over global warming. In this case, the funding appears to have come from the fossil fuel industry and the “think tank” in question is the Heartland Institute. It is dispiriting to learn that some of the earliest money behind Heartland came from tobacco giant Philip Morris. It is perhaps less surprising to learn that some of their other funders over the years have included ExxonMobil and the Koch brothers: The Heartland Institute received more than 7.3 million from Exxon Mobil between 1998 and 2010, and nearly 14.4 million between 1986 and 2010 from foundations affiliated with Charles and David Koch, whose firm Koch Industries has substantial oil and energy holdings. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 71 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Political opponents defeated climate policy by morally reframing a market tool as coercive taxation — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2755; Anti-government ideology independently motivated climate-change denial beyond industry funding — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 74; Fossil fuel industry lobbying blocked U.S. Senate ratification of climate treaties — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2930 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Climate-change denial organizations were directly funded by tobacco and fossil-fuel interests #complicates (0.76) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 71