Earth Equity News

Carbon Tax: How to Get Serious About Energy Policy. By Clive Crook, National Journal, August 2, 2008. "The next president of the United States will arrive at the White House committed to a radical new approach to energy policy. Barack Obama and John McCain have both pledged to take climate change far more seriously than the current administration has done. They promise to curb greenhouse gases through a cap-and-trade system of emissions permits. Both advocate, in addition, an array of measures to promote energy conservation, the use of alternative fuels, and all manner of 'clean-energy' innovation. Their aim is to give the country what both candidates say it now wants: energy security, energy independence, affordable fuels, and the leadership role in fighting global climate change that the Bush administration surrendered when it walked away from the Kyoto Protocol in 2001. Yet both men, in my view, have failed to understand the main issue or, more likely, are deliberately obscuring it... Willingness to advocate an explicit carbon tax -- or at any rate, to spell out the equivalent consequences of a binding cap-and-trade system -- is the real test of whether either candidate is ready to confront this issue. So far, both are failing that test. As it happens, I think the political toxicity of a carbon tax as against cap-and-trade -- assuming we are serious about this, and contemplating a cap-and-trade system that makes a difference -- is exaggerated. A revenue-neutral package of a carbon tax and cuts in other taxes is surely within the bounds of domestic political salesmanship. But also bear in mind the decisive international advantage of a straightforward carbon tax."