update: I got the location wrong. Taylor is speaking at the Albuqerque Museum, not the Museum of Natural History.

I had a chance to talk this morning with James Taylor, from the Heartland Institute, a group opposed to action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He's speaking tomorrow (Tues., Jan. 12 13th, thanks to Michelle for pointing out the typo) in Albuquerque.

Taylor's central argument is that the costs of greenhouse gas reduction outweigh the benefits. For some background reading on some of the underlying principles, I'd suggest this CBO analysis, which Taylor cited in our discussion:

[T]he Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the price rises resulting from a 15 percent cut in CO2 emissions would cost the average household in the lowest one-fifth (quintile) of the income distribution about 3.3 percent of its average income. By comparison, a household in the top quintile would pay about 1.7 percent of its average income....That regressivity occurs because lower-income households tend to spend a larger fraction of their income than wealthier households do and because energy products account for a bigger share of their spending. The price increases resulting from a cap on CO2 emissions would persist as long as the cap remained in place, affecting both current and future consumers. 

Taylor's talk is at 5 p.m. at the Albuquerque Museum of Natural History. More at the web site of the Rio Grande Foundation, the organization sponsoring the visit.