We even believe them when they're discredited

There's a growing chorus saying that with the economy in the dumps we can't afford what it would take to switch to a greener way of doing things. But aren't these the same voices that brought us this disastrous situation? Why, if their economic model has failed, are we still listening to them to guide us in the environment (which they've been doing their utmost to gut)? Why are we repeating their line that the environment and the economy are in opposition? As Dailykos wrote:

We couldn't sign Kyoto, because it would hurt the economy. Well here's news, we didn't sign, and the economy failed. We couldn't place tough requirements on our cars to protect the auto industry. We didn't, and the industry has been dragged to the brink of collapse. We couldn't restrict mountaintop removal mining, because it would cost us jobs. We expanded this form of mining at a record pace, and mining jobs evaporated. We had to open up the national parks to being drilled, chopped, and mined, because the economy needed it. We did all that, we did everything the purists asked, so where are our super duper trillion dollar economic boom times?

We've just experienced the most environmentally abusive administration since the word "ecology" was coined, aided for most of those years by a Republican-dominated congress all too eager to set fire to every environmental rule ever concocted. Even as they head for the door, the Bush administration is still intent on gutting the Clean Air Act, expanding mountaintop removal, breaking the Endangered Species Act, and opening more public lands to destruction. None of which has done a damn thing to help the economy. Republican tactics have both wrecked the ship and ruined the game, and we're still buying into it.

Fortunately:

But a growing chorus of other businesses, environmentalists, and politicians are calling for a green-based economic recovery. ... Such a Green New Deal, woven into the economic stimulus package being crafted for early next year, could create millions of government-subsidized jobs and build a new energy infrastructure.