# If You Like Lockdowns, You’ll Love the Carbon-Free Future

1 Opinion August 18, 2020 The Wall Street Journal ![Paul H. Tice](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/paultice230x260_0.jpg?itok=FQkQLL2C) By Paul Tice >

The climate-change movement is taking advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic, equating it with the “existential crisis” of man-made global warming. While praising the current display of unilateral government action as a model for addressing climate change, many environmentalists and liberal politicians have also called for a surge in government spending on renewable energy projects. The 2020 Democratic Party platform champions “decarbonization” as the best way to “build back better” from the coronavirus.

Green activists and their Democratic standard-bearers should be more focused on the potential that the coronavirus crisis could undermine support for their cause. Here are the climate lessons from the pandemic:

• *This is what a world without fossil fuels looks like*. The lockdown of the U.S. economy beginning in mid-March temporarily choked off demand for crude oil and refined products, driving oil prices negative for the first time ever in April. In recent weeks, production declines have slowed as consumption patterns have started to return to normal with the lifting of quarantines.

Read the full [*Wall Street Journal* article](https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-you-like-lockdowns-youll-love-the-carbon-free-future-11597770652?mod=MorningEditorialReport&mod=djemMER_h).
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*Paul Tice is an Adjunct Professor of Finance at NYU Stern.*
## More from Paul Tice

- [Where Europe Leads on Climate, the United States Should Not Follow.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/where-europe-leads-climate-united-states-should-not-follow)
- [The SEC’s Risky Plan to Decarbonize the U.S. Financial Markets.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/secs-risky-plan-decarbonize-us-financial-markets)
- [Oklahoma’s Anti-ESG Law Is Not Hurting Sooner State Taxpayers or Retirees.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/oklahomas-anti-esg-law-not-hurting-sooner-state-taxpayers-or-retirees)
- [New York’s ‘Congestion Pricing’ Economy](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/new-yorks-congestion-pricing-economy)
- [Shall I Compare New Jersey’s Curriculum to a Summer’s Day?](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/shall-i-compare-new-jerseys-curriculum-summers-day)