As the world's leading exemplar of free market economics, the US has a special obligation to discover effective ways of using the power of market forces to help save the environment. No single tool will solve all environmental problems. Name some free-market or classical liberal environmentalists. Environmentalists share a common goal of trying to protect the environment.
Markets are simply one means of achieving that goal.
Yes, but that doesn't make them bad. In fact, when Newt Gingrich first ran for Congress, he was endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters and the local chapter of the Sierra Club. That claim, often made by liberals, hardly describes conservatives. In today's parlance, conservatives are people who believe in solving problems at a local, decentralized, or individual scale. In contrast, liberals today try to solve problems using the power of the federal government.