Senate Panel Opens Door to Carbon Tax. By Darren Samuelsohn, Greenwire, December 2, 2009. "The Senate climate debate detoured from cap-and-trade legislation on Wednesday as the Energy and Natural Resources Committee weighed alternatives like a carbon tax or even sector-specific limits on power plants. 'We need to dispense with the blind loyalty to cap and trade, or at least begin to question if it is warranted,' said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)... Murkowski, the committee's ranking member and a co-sponsor last year with Democrats of a cap-and-trade bill, said Americans now associate the cap-and-trade concept as a tax that will raise prices on a range of consumer goods... 'We need to be honest about those costs, and ensure that the revenues associated with them are returned to the people who will bear the burden of compliance,' Murkowski said... 'As we take stock of our options, I believe we should explore pairing a massive tax cut with a price on emissions. Academics and economists suggest that climate policy offers an opportunity to improve the efficiency of our tax code and benefit our economy.'
"Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) offered accolades for a carbon tax, too, adding that such an approach 'always seemed like the more intelligent thing to do. It's a constant. You know it's there'... Witnesses invited to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing [video, 129 min] underscored the many options that Congress has before it as it weighs a major shift in U.S. energy and environmental policy. Jonathan Banks, climate policy coordinator at the Clean Air Task Force, floated sector-specific emission limits for power plants, other major industrial facilities and the transportation sector, as opposed to cap-and-trade legislation across the economy."
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