Emission Control

摘要

FOR DECADES, THE IDEA OF A CARBON tax has been stuck in the waiting room of American politics: Familiar to everyone who comes and goes, it has sat there long enough to grow cobwebs from its ears. For the vast majority of Republicans, the idea is anathema, and for Democrats it's one among several policies that compete for the love of lawmakers and climate wonks. But politics, like the climate, is volatile these days. In the past couple of years, some Republicans have broken ranks with their party to support a tax on carbon emissions—perhaps because the climate is becoming more salient with voters, perhaps as a foil to the more radical Green New Deal, or perhaps to, you know, do something to stop global warming. Given that tiny bump in bipartisan momentum, it's worth revisiting the case for a carbon tax. If you want to discourage bad behaviors, economists say, make them expensive. The strategy works for cigarettes, soda, gasoline. And it works for carbon emissions too. Adding a charge to the carbon content of fossil fuels is widely seen as one of the more powerful tools a country can use to shrink its emissions.