Earth Equity News

The Case for a Carbon Tax. By Editorial Board, New York Times, 6/6/2015. "These companies — the BG Group, BP, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Total — are not taking a bold environmental stand. They are being pragmatic. They want an efficient and predictable policy to limit greenhouse gas emissions because they realize something must be done...A carbon tax would also be much easier to administer than some of the other climate change policies that many leaders, including President Obama and Gov. Jerry Brown of California, have backed...Of course, getting lawmakers to adopt a carbon tax will be difficult. In the United States, many Republican lawmakers, the coal-mining industry and politically powerful corporations like Koch Industries oppose it. Just last year, Australia repealed its carbon tax after a new conservative government came to power. But world leaders, who will meet in Paris later this year to negotiate a climate change agreement, cannot give up in the face of this opposition. Carbon taxes are one of the best policies available to solve this global problem."