Earth Equity News

Could Republicans Ever Support a Carbon Tax? Bob Inglis Thinks. By Brad Plumer , WashPost,  March 14, 2013. “The conventional wisdom around Washington is that Republicans will never, ever support a carbon tax to address climate change. And it’s not hard to see why. Right now, they really seem to loathe the idea. Take Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.). The chairman of the Republican Study Committee held a news conference Wednesday to introduce a resolution opposing any new national tax on carbon emissions. He’s lined up plenty of support among conservatives and industry groups, from Grover Norquist to the National Federation of Independent Business. “A national carbon tax would devastate an already struggling American economy, force the cost of gas at the pump to jump even higher, and kill millions more jobs here at home,” Scalise said. End of discussion, it would seem.

“Yet if you ask Bob Inglis of the Energy & Enterprise Initiative, he thinks Republicans can be persuaded to back a carbon tax. It will just take time. And Inglis, a former Republican congressman from South Carolina, thinks he knows how to sell the idea… Inglis starts with the notion that conservatives will only accept a tax on carbon emissions if every dollar of revenue is used to cut taxes elsewhere — say, corporate taxes or income taxes. ‘We have to be absolutely clear that we’re not trying to grow the size of government,’ he says. And the environmental pitch has to be calibrated right: ‘We’re not talking about regulations or EPA action,’ he adds. ‘All we’re talking about is accounting for the true cost of the fuels we use. And I should mention that we’re not talking about apocalyptic visions of climate change. What we’re talking about is reasonable risk avoidance, the kind that our friends in the insurance industry are now taking cognizance of.’”