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Carbon tax is best climate-change fix The recent cap-and-trade debate was disappointing. I presumed the question would be how we go about reducing greenhouse gasses, not whether climate change exists (“Cap and trade and you,” Common Ground, The Forum, Thursday).
Let’s look at the drawbacks to the cap-and-trade approach and an alternative that shows greater promise. Cap and trade would create a trillion-dollar market in carbon futures and derivatives. If you thought the housing bubble was a mess, wait until the “carbon bubble” bursts. Under the Waxman-Markey bill, we’re unlikely to see any reduction in carbon dioxide emissions until 2020, far too late to slow the avalanche of climate change that is gaining momentum. The bill that passed in the House squeaked through by the slimmest of margins and stands little hope of passage in the Senate.
A more effective approach is to tax carbon and return the revenue to consumers through income and payroll taxes, offsetting increased energy costs. By increasing the cost of fossil fuels, alternative energy sources would become more competitive. We’d produce new jobs, lower our dependence on foreign oil and significantly reduce emissions.
Carbon tax bills have already been introduced in the House and present a solution both parties seem willing to get behind.
If it isn’t broke
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on Jul 17th, 2009
@ 12:07 pm:
What about clean coal technology? We should be developing the technology here in the States to export to developing nations like China and India, who use their huge coal reserves for energy.
Once the Duke Energys Edwardsport IGCC plant in Indiana is completed (its on schedule for 2012), this IGCC plant will be one of the cleanest coal-based power plants in the world, producing 10 times as much power as the existing unit with 45 percent less carbon dioxide emissions per unit of energy produced.