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Okiedokie. I love the free market. So we get rid of the subsidies to the oil companies and the nuclear power companies, and we require that they fully fund in escrow the resources needed to clean up their own waste, and that gets included in the energy costs, as passed along down the line.
For example, nuclear waste is currently projected to be toxic for what, 30,000 years? I'll settle for an endowment to monitor the waste, keep people away from it, check for leaks, etc. for 30,000 years. (Never mind that this is longer than we've had agriculture. We'll just let that pass for now.) If new technological breakthroughs appear that reduce the risk or even make the waste valuable for other purposes, the companies can have their endowment back.
Same with coal mining-- reforestation built into the cost of the coal. Fossil fuel plants and vehicles need to either be carbon-free or include offset credits in their operations.
With this kind of system, I see no problem with the free market. Energy companies and consumers will have plenty of incentives to find their own lower-impact solutions, because the true costs of the energy used will be included.
What I hear most people proposing isn't a free market, but a deficit market-- spend as much of the world's resources as you want now, because various laws and regulations won't stop you... and your grandchildren can figure out how to pick up the tab.
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