The Case for the Carbon Tax: How to Overcome Politics and Find Our Green Destiny

摘要

A federal carbon tax is the best choice for controlling GHG emissions. A carbon tax is simpler, more transparent, and more effective than a carbon cap-and-trade system. Australian tax expert David Russell favors a carbon tax, claiming that it is predictable, gradual, and could be easily implemented. Russell also asserts that GHG emissions trading could turn out to be the costliest public mistake in human history.i hope, for the sake of those countries and regions that have already invested in GHG trading programs, that he is incorrect in his latter assumption. The United States has the opportunity to make the right decision first. It's time that we unlearn the lesson of the former senator (Democrat) from Minnesota, Walter Mondale, who famously said: "Mr. Reagan will raise taxes; and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did." Former Senator Mondale lost to Ronald Reagan in a landslide, and no other U.S. politician has ever dared to admit that he or she would raise taxes.119 His words are still the truth: a carbon cap-and-rntrade system would increase energy costs-like a tax-the advocates just won't tell you so.rnA carbon tax doesn't need to increase overall taxes, because it can be recycled. Choosing a carbon tax will level the playing field and send a clear price signal throughout the economy without picking winners. It limits the opportunities for rent-seeking and fraud that lurk in the complexity of a cap-and-trade system. A carbon tax taxes bads, not goods. It creates incentives to try various means of GHG reductions: conservation; efficiency; and renewable energy. It creates incentives to buy sustainably produced local goods. It discourages the global market from using cheap labor (by making transport of goods more expensive), and encourages a global market in ideas. In a recent column, Friedman wrote the following:rnMany people will tell [President-elect] Obama that taxing carbon . . . now is a "non-starter." Wrong. It is the only starter. It is the game-changer.rnA carbon tax can best help us achieve our green destiny. We should do it, now.