"Green is green"

Hit & Run has a good post up about free market-based environmentalism. This is an issue that has been dominated by the left, but has potential to be used by the right (and libertarians). The video at the post features TJ Rodgers, who is in charge of a company that manufactures solar energy:

[H]e tells a story about the time he caught the president of SunPower "blathering about ice caps or something like that" and went to great lengths to publicly mock him for being, essentially, a Birkenstocks-wearing dirty hippie.

Rodgers' position these days seems to be something like this: Give the people a product they want, make a profit doing it, and don't feel too high and mighty if you happen to do something "socially responsible." Green is good? Who cares? The important thing, as he puts it, is that "green is green." Like money, get it?

There is a market out there for people who don't really mind being green, as long as it doesn't hinder capitalism. For example, driving a Toyota Prius doesn't hurt the free market or the environment. Just ask Rep. Tom Tancredo.

I believe Republicans and Libertarians have a chance to take this issue and run with it. There are plenty of conservative people out there who wouldn't mind being more environmentally friendly if the stigma of being a "dirty hippie" weren't attached to the issue.

Sen. John McCain has embraced the issue, but unfortunately (and not surprisingly) he tends to align with the left instead of with the free market. An interview with Sen. McCain on environmental policy can be found here.