Who wrote these comments in a leading American newspaper over the weekend?

Conservatives champion the essential characteristics of America: liberty, enterprise and ingenuity. As world leaders consider how to transform the way we make and use energy in the face of a changing climate, it’s time for an energy policy true to that spirit — and it shouldn’t be anathema to the American right.

Was it Terry McCrann, a noted climate sceptic in the News Ltd press, was it Andrew Bolt, a denier from Camp Murdoch? Or was it Michael Costa, the former NSW Treasurer and an ALP denier; or was it mark Latham, another ALP denier?

Nah, sounds too reasonable for those former ALP players and for the News Ltd package of anti-global warming hounds. It has to be someone less greener than say, Clive Hamilton; could it be an American Malcolm Turnbull, someone in business?

Getting warm; here’s a little tip about the identity of the author. He (yep, it’s a bloke) believes in market-based solutions, not government regulation.

Gee willikers Batman, the Mad Monk will be down on him like a tonne of bricks. He and road buddy Barney Joyce don’t believe in global warming, climate changes or market-based solutions. Instead as MM told us last week, they believe in more government regulation.

So here’s a few more comments from this unknown author; the first paragraph especially applies to the MM and his master, Senator Nick Minchin.

“Today, Americans of all political persuasions want to see their country on a path toward an economy powered by energy that is clean, safe, secure and stable. With climate legislation pending and a binding global treaty being negotiated, conservative leadership is critical because the only way to get the job done is with broad bipartisan agreement.

“Competition trumps regulation. A sensible clean-energy policy should free, rather than constrain, markets. Smart policy corrects market failures and provides certainty, stimulating investment in the technology and infrastructure necessary to build an economy based on clean energy. Washington must ensure that such investment will be rewarded. The government shouldn’t “pick winners” — it should unleash competition, ensuring that the cleanest businesses thrive and the dirtiest are held accountable. A well-crafted federal law to limit pollution is better than unfettered regulation by the EPA or ever-changing regulation by the states.

“You do not need to believe that all climate science is settled or every prediction or model is perfect to understand the benefits of limiting pollution and transforming our energy policies — as a gradually declining cap on carbon pollution would do. This is the moment to champion policies that yield new industries, healthy competition, cleaner air and water, freedom from petroleum politics and reduced costs for businesses.

“Through market-based incentives we can achieve clean energy at the lowest cost and with the strongest incentives for innovation — ensuring that the energy solution will help, not harm, the economy. Republicans such as Senator Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) get this and are working across party lines to build support for new legislation. Previously conservation-minded conservatives are missing in the heated partisanship of today’s politics. It’s time they found their voice again.”

Gee, a conservative, with some sense, not blindly believing in climate change and global warming, but an underlying belief that something has to be done.

So who is the author is of this op-ed piece in the Washington Post on Saturday?

Well, it was James Murdoch, No.2 at News Corp (“The writer is chairman and chief executive, Europe and Asia, News Corporation” was the write-off at the bottom of the piece). That makes him the employer and direct boss of of Terry McCrann and Andrew Bolt, the Australian and all those other climate change deniers (not sceptics) at News Ltd.