There is another example of the left's policies running into the law of unintended consequences. Or in this case, the "Green Paradox." The Green Paradox is the title of a 2012 book that explains how anti-fossil fuel policies often end up encouraging more fossil fuel energy production. Peter Jacobsen with the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) explains this phenomenon, which is further backed up by a recent research paper. "For those who own oil or oil reserves, if those people think that five, ten years from now oil is going to be banned (or heavily restricted), then they know their resource is going to become less valuable," he tells KTRH. "So that encourages them to try and pull as much out of the ground right now as possible, and sell it as quickly as possible, so they're not left sitting on this valueless resource."
Jacobsen points out that evidence shows even the mere threat of an anti-oil cap-and-trade bill in 2009-10 led to millions of tons of extra oil consumption in the interim. He notes this is a common miscalculation on the left, where their policies don't take into account the dynamics of human behavior or reaction. Another example is when raising the minimum wage leads businesses to automate, resulting in layoffs and fewer jobs.
"Activists and interest groups don't just get to own how people respond to things...people are going to make the decisions they wanna make," says Jacobsen. "So when it comes to these green policies, which are really gonna hurt the economic interests of a lot of American families, people aren't just going to sit by and let that happen."
"Instead they respond, and that sometimes leads to the policies being undermined."