Earth Equity News

Environmental Justice Coalition Blasts Cap-and-Trade, Backs Carbon Tax. By Charles Komanoff, Carbon Tax Center, June 13, 2008. "Condemning carbon trading as 'fraught with uncertainties, lack[ing] transparency and creat[ing] large opportunities for emitting facilities to engage in fraud,' a national coalition of environmental justice organizations has called for a federal carbon tax to address 'the most critical issue of our time' -- the climate crisis. The June 2 statement from the Climate Justice Leadership Forum is the latest sign of mounting disaffection with the top-down push for carbon cap-and-trade. It is particularly significant because the 28 signatory organizations, which span the country from Anchorage to New Orleans and from Oakland to New York City, have been the spearhead of a rising movement by communities of color to crack open the historically affluent and white U.S. environmental lobby, much of which has backed the cap-and-trade approach to pricing carbon emissions."