Public Policy Forum Debate

On March 11th at 7pm in the Pellegrene Auditorium, The Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy & Civic Engagement is sponsoring a public debate on environmental policy. The central debate resolution is “Be it resolved that the free-market is best suited to protect the environment.”

This debate will be well balanced, with highly qualified people on both sides of the event.

Christopher Horner, a best-selling author and a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, will be making an encore appearance and speaking on the affirmative side of the resolution.

Denis McDonough, a ’92 SJU alum, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and advisor to Presidential candidate Barack Obama, will argue against the resolution.

The McCarthy Center will also prepare four students to participate alongside the experts, with two students on each side. A larger group of students will serve as a debate prep team.

With growing scientific knowledge of the multitude of environmental issues, many folks are increasingly interested in the debate over the role of government and private sector in response to these issues. Topics like cap and trade systems, carbon taxes, Kyoto Treaty, and other public policy issues are likely to be addressed, along with capitalism’s profit incentive and how environmental integrity plays in to that.

We hope this debate will interest faculty, staff, and students from many disciplines and political ideas. However, we also hope this will be an informative, lively, and civil debate for those who just want to learn more about the issues and trade offs associated with environmental policy.