Friday, April 4, 2008

Al Gore has announced that he will raise and spend $300 million in an effort to persuade the public and elected officials to support his climate change agenda [news story, March 31]. I wonder how campaign finance "reformers" and ethics "watchdogs" who continually bemoan the fact that private citizens are allowed to spend money to influence public opinion and political debate will react to Mr. Gore's campaign.

I also wonder whether the media will find it newsworthy and even scandalous that some contributors to Mr. Gore's effort will be venture capitalists or businesses that stand to reap billions of dollars in profits if Mr. Gore's agenda is enacted. The Post certainly thought it newsworthy that some global warming skeptics are funded at least in part by oil and coal interests.

Perhaps it would be better if, rather than squabbling over who is funding whom and what "special interests" they represent, news coverage and public discussion instead focused on whether Mr. Gore or the skeptics make the better scientific, economic, and policy arguments. I fear the reformers and watchdogs have so poisoned the well that having a rational discussion on this and other issues will be impossible.

SEAN PARNELL

President

Center for Competitive Politics

Alexandria