OPINION/COMMENTARY

Bush Still Can't Shake His 'C' Average

In 2001, President Bush gave the commencement address at his alma mater. He told the graduating class at Yale that they could do anything, be anything, change the world. “And to you 'C' students, you too can be president of the United States.” Well, W., here’s lookin’ at you. Recently, the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), the nation's oldest and largest institute dedicated to original research bringing market principles to resolve environmental problems, released its end of term report card for the Bush Administration. PERC’s mid-term report slapped Bush with a C- and this year, Bush didn’t do much better. The Bush Administration showed a little improvement, snagging a C+. PERC helped pioneer the Free Market Environmentalism (FME) movement. In short, FME espouses property rights, which encourage environmental stewardship, market incentives that spur conservation, and polluter liability. The Bush Administration didn’t quite measure up to the FME standards. (Learn more about alternative environmentalism on aBE.) Okay, so a C+ isn’t exactly a grade that your mother would brag to her friends about or hang up on the refrigerator, but it is an improvement, a movement in the right direction....