Overview of Supporters of Carbon Fee or Carbon Tax
August 2008 (Updated July 2010)
Organization/Individual
Political leaders
Senator Chris Dodd
(CT-D)
Affiliation
Associated
Press
Rep. Pete Stark (CA-D)
Comment
He wants to discourage corporate greenhouse gas polluters by imposing a per-ton fee
on businesses for carbon emissions. "You have to have a price-driven strategy if you
are going to succeed in this thing," Dodd said in a telephone interview Wednesday
with The Associated Press. "Otherwise, I'm afraid it's just a lot of talk. People are
trying to avoid the difficult decisions." April 19, 2007
Supports carbon tax legislation
"It seems to me it's simpler," explained Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), a sponsor of
carbon tax legislation dating back to the 1990s. "It doesn't have a bureaucracy. It's
infinitely adjustable. My guess is if we're going to do anything seriously to reduce
carbon emissions, it'll end up as the least objectionable alternative."
Rep Charles Rangel,
(NY-D), chair, W&M
Committee
Rep. John B. Larson (CTD)
Miller (CA-D)
DeLauro (CT-D)
Grijalva (AZ-D)
Lofgren (CA-D)
Lowey (NY-D)
Moran (VA-D)
Towns (NY-D)
Supports carbon or energy tax (interviews from publication of new book, spring,
2007)
Carbon tax.org
In February 2006, Larson was selected by his colleagues to serve as Vice Chair of
the Democratic Caucus. The Vice Chair assists the Chairman in organizing and
running the Democratic Caucus and works with Caucus and committee leaders to
develop the Caucus agenda. He was reelected to this position in November 2006,
making him the fifth-ranking Democrat in the House.
Larson introduced a bill in August 2006 that would have imposed a $15 tax
in its first year for every ton of carbon dioxide emissions from the oil, gas and coal
industries, with the tax rising 10 percent annually while also keeping pace with
Page 1 of 27
Blumenauer (OR-D)
inflation (Greenwire, Aug. 14, 2006). He predicted action on a new version of the
legislation later this year in the House Ways and Means Committee. 1/14/09
Each of the co-sponsors of Larson is also on either Gilchrest-Olver or Waxman,
quantity instruments vs. the Larson bill, a price instrument.
Rep. John Dingell (MI-D)
NY Times
Representative John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, plans to propose
raising the cost of burning oil, gas and coal, in a move that could shake
up the debate on global warming. 7-7-07
URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/07/washington/07carbon.html?ex=1184472000&e
n=a78c5cba0e35643d&ei=5070&emc=eta1
In Feb, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report that stated a carbon tax
would be the best financial measure to attack climate change. House Energy and
Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) in his carbon tax proposal has
suggested increasing the at-the-pump gasoline tax by 50 cents per gallon.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)
"We all spend a lot of time here on cap and trade, and I'm actually open to it as long
as every penny generated from that is returned to the citizens, a cap and dividend
kind of program," he said at a hearing last week. "But wouldn't we be much better off
just with a carbon tax and just be, you know, clean with the American people and let
them know, look, we're taxing carbon, and you're going to burn carbon, it's going to
cost you money?"
Rep. Bob Inglis (R.-S.C.)
Penned a New York Times op-ed declaring the carbon tax as the bridge that would
win over conservative Republicans reluctant to support climate legislation. 12/27/08
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/opinion/28inglis.html?_r=1
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)
Politico
In August, four Democratic Senators – Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of
Nebraska and Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad, both of North Dakota – urged that the
cap-and-trade provision be dropped.
Page 2 of 27
Dorgan (D-ND). Opposed to the “trade” part of cap-and-trade. Said he is open to a
“carbon fee” that has no trading – sounds like a tax? Congressional Record Volume
155, Number 130 (Tuesday, September 15, 2009)
U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan Congressional
(D-ND)
Record Volume
155, Number
130, Tuesday
September 15,
2009
Jason Bordoff
Associate
Director for
Climate Change
for White House
Council on
Environmental
Quality
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=72C64B78-18FE-70B2A80EC4736E39A7AA
Dorgan (D-ND). Opposed to the “trade” part of cap-and-trade. Said he is open to a
“carbon fee” that has no trading – sounds like a tax? Collar has great traction right
now. Reid announcement yesterday of maybe no bill this year (committee staff tell
me that that is for certain, not a maybe) has taken much of the wind out of the sails.
Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 130 (Tuesday, September 15, 2009)
Senate
Pages S9336-S-9338
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office
(www.gpo.gov)
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2007/10climatechange_furman.aspx
page 19
“In theory, as originally shown by Roberts and Spence (1976), the optimal policy is a
hybrid between a carbon tax and a cap-and-trade system. In this hybrid system, the
government would issue a limited number of permits and establish a maximum price
for these permits. Once permits reached this maximum price, sometimes called a
“safety valve” or an “alternative compliance fee” (Stavins 2007), the government
would begin issuing more permits at this price to minimize price volatility. In the
case of climate change, such a hybrid system would likely look more like a carbon
tax—with the price frequently hitting the safety valve—than a cap-and-trade
system...In reality, it would probably be adjusted over time. If, for example, a carbon
tax was not achieving large enough emissions reductions, it could be raised. Or, if a
cap-and-trade system resulted in permits that were too costly, then more permits
Page 3 of 27
could be issued. Thus, the economic difference between the two systems, even in the
face of uncertainty, may not be as large as this analysis suggests.”
News Media
New York Times
Editorial
Washington Post Editorial
Thomas Friedman
New York
Times
The Truth About Coal "There is a need to put a price on carbon to force companies to
abandon older, dirtier technologies for newer, cleaner ones. Right now, everyone is
using the atmosphere like a municipal dump, depositing carbon dioxide free. Start
charging for the privilege and people will find smarter ways to do business. A carbon
tax is one approach. Another is to impose a steadily decreasing cap on emissions and
let individual companies figure out ways to stay below the cap." February. 25, 2007,
Avoiding Calamity on the Cheap "Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, the
atmosphere has served as a free dumping ground for carbon gases. If people and
industries are made to pay heavily for the privilege, they will inevitably be driven to
develop cleaner fuels, cars and factories." November 3, 2006
Washington
Post
Sorry Record - Waiting for breakthrough technologies is not the way to reduce
greenhouse gases,."The Administration] has resisted taxing carbon use, preferring
instead to provide incentives for oil and gas extraction — just the opposite of what’s
needed." July 11, 2006
New York
Times
Columnist
Who’s Afraid of a Gas Tax? "Americans not only know that our oil addiction is
really bad for us, but they would be willing to accept a gasoline tax if some leader
would just frame the stakes for the country the right way," March 1, 2006. And The
Color of the Year Is … "You have to make sure that green energy sources … can be
delivered as cheaply as oil, gas and dirty coal. That will require a gasoline or carbon
tax to keep the price of fossil fuels up so investors in green-tech will not get undercut
while they drive innovation forward and prices down," Dec. 22, 2006. The First
Energy President "It means asking Americans to do some hard things [including]
accepting a gasoline or carbon tax," Jan. 5, 2007 and A Warning From the Garden, ,
"I don’t care whether it is a federal gasoline tax, carbon tax, B.T.U. tax or cap-andtrade system, power utilities, factories and car owners have to be required to pay the
real and full cost to society of the carbon they put into the atmosphere. And higher
Page 4 of 27
costs for fossil fuels make more costly clean alternatives more competitive… And
prices matter. They drive more and cleaner energy choices. So when the president
unveils his energy proposals, if they don’t call for higher efficiency standards and
higher prices for fossil fuels — take your socks off yourself. It’s going to get hot
around here." January 19, 2007
David Brooks
New York
Times
Columnist
"Raise taxes on carbon emissions," (Waiting To Be Wooed). Brooks favors using
the tax revenues to make tax cuts on dividends and capital gains permanent.
November 30, 2006
Nicholas Kristof
New York
Times
Columnist
A Paradise Drowning "We must encourage conservation and fuel efficiency, support
alternative forms of energy like wind, solar and biofuels, and … adopt a carbon
tax…," January 8, 2006
Paul Krugman
New York
Times
Columnist
The Sum of All Ears, "If carbon dioxide is deemed to inflict damage on the
environment, then the efficient way to resolve the problem is to provide market
incentives to burn less carbon. The most straightforward policy would be an acrossthe-board carbon tax." Sins of Emission "[C]onservation doesn’t have anything like
the same natural political mojo [as ethanol]. Where’s the organized, powerful
constituency for tougher fuel economy standards, a higher gasoline tax, or a cap-andtrade system on carbon dioxide emissions?" January 29, 2007
John Tierney
New York
Times
Columnist
Burn, Baby, Burn ("The fairest and most efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions would be with a carbon tax on all fossil fuels," February 7, 2006
Wall Street
Journal
Business
Columnist
"… walking upright, with knuckles no longer in proximity to the ground, are
advocates — mostly economists — of a carbon tax. A carbon tax would be the
efficient way of encouraging businesses and consumers to make less carbonintensive energy choices. Government would not have to exercise an improbable
clairvoyance about which technologies will pay off in the future. There’d be less
scope for Congress to favor some industries over others purely on the basis of
Holman W. Jenkins Jr
Page 5 of 27
lobbying clout." Decoding Climate Politics, January 24, 2007
Kimberly A. Strassel
Wall Street
Journal political
columnist
(Referring to corporate lobbying on cap-and-trade climate program): "What makes
this lobby worse than the usual K-Street crowd is that it offers no upside. At least
when Big Pharma self-interestedly asks for fewer regulations, the economy benefits.
There’s nothing capitalist about lobbying for a program that foists its debilitating
costs on taxpayers and consumers while redistributing the wealth to a few corporate
players." If The Cap Fits, January 26, 2007
Steve Chapman
Columnist,
Chicago
Tribune
Saving the Earth Sensibly The free market is the best system ever created for
providing what we want at the lowest possible cost. The way to get affordable
amelioration of climate change is to put the market to work finding solutions. To
achieve that, we merely need to make energy prices reflect the potential harm done
by greenhouse gases. How? With a carbon tax that assesses fuels according to how
much they pollute. Coal, having the highest carbon content, would be taxed the most,
followed by oil and natural gas. The higher prices for the most damaging fuels would
encourage people and companies to use them less and more of other types of energy,
including nuclear, solar, wind and biofuels. This approach also would affect all
sources -- not just cars, which account for only one-fifth of all U.S. carbon dioxide
emissions. A carbon tax, however, has one huge drawback: It's a tax, and neither
Republicans nor Democrats want to impose a new tax. They would rather address
fossil fuel consumption by boosting auto fuel economy standards, pouring money
into alternative fuel research and requiring greater use of ethanol. Did I say
Republicans and Democrats don't want to impose a tax? I lied. The truth is they don't
want to impose a visible tax. All the subsidies, rules and mandates you hear about
don't come free, but you pay for them without realizing it -- and without realizing
whom to blame.” April 12, 2007
Atlanta JournalConstitution
editorial-page
editor, writing
"The president should have told Americans years ago that the days of cheap gas were
over. If the president had imposed a stiff tax on gasoline at the pump [after 9/11],
American motorists would have grumbled, but we would have gotten over it."
(Oiloholic Nation Has No Business Lecturing China, April 24, 2006)
Cynthia Tucker
Page 6 of 27
in the Baltimore
Sun
Anne Applebaum
Washington
Post Columnist
"I no longer believe that a complicated carbon trading regime — in which industries
trade emissions "credits" — would work within the United States … So much is at
stake for so many industries that the legislative process to create it would be easily
distorted by their various lobbies. Any lasting solutions will have to be extremely
simple, and — because of the cost implicit in reducing the use and emissions of
fossil fuels — will also have to benefit those countries that impose them in other
ways. Fortunately, there is such a solution, one that is grippingly unoriginal, requires
no special : knowledge of economics and is easy for any country to implement. It’s
called a carbon tax, and it should be applied across the board …" (Global
Warming’s Simple Remedy, February 6, 2007)
Sebastian Mallaby
Washington
Post Columnist
"These days almost nobody asserts that global warming isn’t happening. Instead, we
are confronted with a new lie: that we can respond to climate change without taxing
and regulating carbon… We already have technologies to cut carbon… The problem
is we don’t use them… What matters is not just the technologies we have but the
incentives to deploy them." (A Dated Carbon Approach, July 10, 2006)
New York
Observer
Columnist
"When they talk about conservation at all — which is almost never — [politicians]
talk in terms of new tax deductions when they ought to be talking about imposing
new taxes. How about a heavy energy-consumption tax on McMansions?… Similar
kinds of taxes could be imposed on whole classes of machines that pour filth into the
atmosphere and consume frightful amounts of fuel." (While Politicians Pander,
Conservation Is Ignored, May 15, 2006).
Economics
Columnist
("Economix"),
Buy A Hybrid,
Save A Guzzler,
"The simplest idea in economics, I think, is that people respond to the incentives they
are given… So if we have decided that we need to use less oil for our own good —
which seems to be the case — we need big incentives to change our behavior… A
substantial gas tax would be the simplest, with other taxes being cut to keep down
the overall burden."
Nicholas von Hoffman:
David Leonhardt
Page 7 of 27
Daniel Akst
February 8,
2006
Economics
Columnist
Fareed Zakaria
Newsweek/MS
NBC – Column
“Both problems can be solved by the same simple idea—a tax on spewing carbon
into the atmosphere. Once you tax carbon, you make it cheaper to produce clean
energy. If burning coal and petrol in current ways becomes more expensive because
of the damage they do to the environment, people will find ways to get energy out of
alternative fuels or methods. Along the way, industrial societies will earn tax
revenues that they can use, in part, to subsidize clean energy for the developing
world. It is the only way to solve the problem at a global level, which is the only
level at which the solution is meaningful.” The Case for a Global Carbon Tax, April
17, 2007
David Olive
Toronto Star
columnist
“Carbon taxes are coming … The carbon tax [is] the single most powerful tool for
encouraging conservation of the planet’s finite coal, oil and natural gas resources,
and for diminishing the role of CO2 emissions in destroying the earth.” Only Carbon
"Let’s face it: nothing but drastically higher prices will deter most of us from
consuming more carbon-based energy… Of course, it would be nice not to have to
rely on cartels and circumstances to make us moderate our consumption. Hefty taxes
on carbon-based energy … would be a much better approach." ("On The
Contrary"):The Good News About Oil Prices Is The Bad News, September 17, 2006
Taxes Can Rekindle Conservation, March 9, 2007
Robert Robb
Arizona
Republic
columnist
"Economists have long preferred a carbon tax to a cap-and-trade regimen. A small
tax would likely have a large effect. Once the infrastructure for collecting the tax is
in place, an increased rate is just a vote away. Even with a small tax, carbon
emissions would become an unpredictable variable cost, creating a large incentive to
reconfigure production processes to reduce or eliminate them …Politicians
frequently ignore the preferences of economists, since economists usually prefer a
reduced role for the preferences of politicians … However, if serious action is to be
taken on global warming, someone in the political class needs to start paying
Page 8 of 27
attention to them." Robert Robb (Cool It on Global Warming, February 7, 2007
Elizabeth Kolbert
Robert J. Samuelson
Hendrik Hertzberg
The Kansas City Star
Editorial Board
New Yorker
writer
Endorsed a carbon tax or emissions-trading system in an interview with Wired
Magazine published March 29, 2006
Washington
Post
“Unless we find cost-effective ways of reducing the role of fossil fuels, a cap-andtrade system will ultimately break down” June 2nd, 2008
Op-Ed
Columnist
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/06/01/AR2008060101913.html
New Yorker
commentator
"The best way to encourage conservation — and the true sign of a serious energy
policy — would be imposing a hefty gasoline tax and raising mandatory fuelefficiency standards." February 13 & 20, 2006
The Kansas City The cap and trade measure is designed to make businesses buy and sell permits to
Star
meet orderly goals of reduced pollution. But the House energy policy is full of
loopholes. It is too lenient on polluters. It doesn’t ensure that emissions will decline
swiftly. Now it’s time for the U.S. Senate to act. And the most positive change the
Senate could make would be to radically alter the proposal and approve a measure to
impose a carbon tax.
A tax on fossil fuels that create greenhouse gases would dramatically and quickly
force coal-fired power plants and other industries to modernize equipment. A tax also
would encourage investment in cleaner and renewable energies. Some of the tax
revenue could be used to speed up research on energy sources such as wind, solar
and electric batteries.
And while a carbon tax would boost energy costs in the short term, it would be a fair
way to have Americans bay for the cost of using power that damages the
environment and helps create global warming. As renewable energy gains a larger
foothold, it could actually create jobs in energy-efficient industries, holding down
costs as new power sources become cheaper and more efficient.
August 29, 2009
Page 9 of 27
Juliet Eilperin
The Washington
Post
This “finding” under the Clean Air Act may seem like a no-brainer, given the
potential ill effects of climate change. But that law, enacted in 1970, was never
intended to deal with greenhouse gases and is not suited to that task. The Bush
administration’s failure to tackle climate change directly drove states and
environmental advocates to seek back-door paths to regulation. If this one goes
forward, the EPA would have to regulate greenhouse gases from all sources,
including cars, houses and commercial buildings. This would create what Rep. John
Dingell (D-Mich.) has called “a glorious mess.” Congress should avert it putting a
price on carbon.
3/24/09
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/03/23/AR2009032301068.html?hpid=topnews
Robert J. Samuelson
The Washington
Post, Op-Ed
Columnist
“Unless we find cost-effective ways of reducing the role of fossil fuels, a cap-andtrade system will ultimately break down” June 2, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/06/01/AR2008060101913.html
Paul Krugman
Companies
National Rural Electric
Cooperative Association
(NRECA)
The New York
Times, Op-Ed
Columnist
The Sum of All Ears, “If carbon dioxide is deemed to inflict damage on the
environment, then the efficient way to resolve the problem is to provide market
incentives to burn less carbon. The most straightforward policy would be an acrossthe-board carbon tax.” Sins of Emission, “[C]onservation doesn’t have anything like
the same natural political mojo [as ethanol]. Where’s the organized, powerful
constituency for tougher fuel economy standards, a higher gasoline tax, or a cap-andtrade system on carbon dioxide emissions?” January 29, 2007
February 27,
2009
" ... NRECA strongly objects to the proposal in your Administration’s budget to
auction emission allowances to the highest bidder in a cap-and-trade program. Such a
program would only serve as a backdoor, variable tax on consumers. Even worse, the
level of the tax would be determined by Wall Street and large multi-national energy
Page 10 of 27
Glenn English (President)
ExxonMobil
companies who would likely be the highest bidders in any auction. If the
government needs to raise revenue to fund important national priorities, those taxes
should be set by the government and collected by the IRS, not set by Wall Street and
collected by utilities " Feb. 27, 2009 letter from NRECA's Glenn English to
President Obama
March 21, 2007, ExxonMobil warns that trading systems risk having a highly volatile carbon price
in its
that will make it difficult for business to make long-term investments to cut
submission to
emissions.
the Australian
Prime
Ministerial Task
Group on
Emissions
Trading
Exxon Mobil Corp.
Chairman and CEO Rex
Tillerson
"The main benefit of a tax is that it offers certainty and transparency about the price
of the outcome. ExxonMobil believes that stability and transparency of costs will be
essential to maintain public support for long-term, uncertain efforts to address risks
over many decades," the oil major said.
"As a businessman, it's hard to speak favorably about any new tax," Tillerson said at
the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, "but a carbon tax strikes me as a more
direct, transparent and effective approach."
1/8/09 (E&E News PM)
carbon tax and cap and trade are equally intriguing. "Both can work," he said. "The
devil is really in how they are designed."
ConocoPhillips, CEO
Jim Mulva
Florida Power & Light
FPL Group
Lewis Hay III,
Chief
Executive, FPL
Suggests
According to a news article announcing that FPL would be promoting a “carbon fee”
that would be tacked on to fossil fuel charges based on the amount of carbon dioxide
released from burning them, Hay “believes such a fee, set at a reasonable level and
gradually increased, would create market pressures encouraging emission cutbacks
Page 11 of 27
Carbon Fee to
Control Gas
Emissions,
MiamiHerald.co
m
Paul Anderson, Chairman
and CEO
Duke Energy
James Rogers, Chairman of
Duke Energy
not just on utilities but across the economy — but it should be done in a way that is
friendlier to industries, businesses and consumers than the ‘cap and trade’ scheme
dominating discussions in Congress.” Hay stated that "cap and trade" would result in
a “giant food fight over these [carbon] allowances,” invite fraud, such as that which
has marred similar programs in Europe, and result in volatile carbon pricing.
According to Hay, “We think the big winners in a trading scheme will all be the
investment bankers.” March 31, 2007
“The best approach to drive these reductions—and the technological innovations that
will help achieve them—is a broad-based carbon tax, which addresses carbon
dioxide emissions from all sectors of the economy, including transportation,
manufacturing and power generation. Here’s why: A well-crafted carbon tax that
starts at a modest rate and increases gradually and predictably over time can establish
incentives throughout the U.S. economy to reduce carbon dioxide emissions with
minimal disruption. First, it would provide incentives for everyone to conserve.
Second, it would promote higher utilization of existing power plants that are low
emitters of carbon and encourage low-carbon fuel choices for the future. And third, it
would encourage the development of new technologies.
An economy-wide carbon tax is the least prescriptive policy approach as it does not
mandate reductions in any one sector. Compared to other market-based approaches,
such as “cap-and-trade” policies, a carbon tax provides greater certainty regarding
cost impacts. A carbon tax would not mandate targeted reductions from one sector or
another, but would instead send economic signals that enable businesses and
individuals to make informed decisions. For this reason, many economic experts
believe that a carbon tax is more efficient than a cap-and-trade policy for addressing
climate change over the long-term. Pre-merger in an 2005 opinion column
Duke Energy Chairman James Rogers, a key player in the national debate over how
to handle global warming, wants Congress to try a “back to the basics” approach in
dealing with the issue. June 12, 2008
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080612/BIZ01/806120343/1
076/BIZ
Page 12 of 27
As reported in Platts Electric Power Daily: “The chairman and CEO of Dynegy
Monday said he believes that a carbon tax, or fee, is preferable to a cap-and-trade
system because it would be “simpler” and would avoid the
potential lawsuits that could erode a cap-and trade system over time.
Bruce Williamson,
Chairman and CEO
Dynergy Corp
Glenn Cannon, GM
Waverly Light & Power
(public power)
Caterpillar Inc.
Federal Express
Referenced:
PowerSwitch
Debate in
Sydney
Australia,
September 2,
2004
I think a carbon tax, I mean that’s the short answer to the question. That puts the pain
right there for everybody and historically if you look at electricity prices in terms of
real dollars they haven’t done anything but gone down. So people really, the utility
industry has done a pretty good job. They’ve delivered a very reliable, low cost
energy and people have kind of taken it for granted. We turn the switch on and we
expect the lights to come on and operate our appliances. We never want it to not be
there and the utilities have done a pretty good job of doing that. But I think we have
reached the bottom of the price and I think we are going to see we turn the corner
now and the price is probably going to start going up. But the immediate thing, in my
opinion, would be a
carbon tax.
Bloomberg
Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) – The chief executives of Caterpillar Inc. and FedEx Corp.
said they prefer a tax on carbon dioxide emissions and criticized the cap-and-trade
measures being debated in Congress.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=af7xdAInGuOQ
September 23, 2009
ConocoPhillips, CEO
Jim Mulva
1/8/09 http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2009/01/08/archive/3
Carbon tax and cap and trade are equally intriguing. “Both can work,” he said. “The
devil is really in how they are designed.”
Page 13 of 27
Opinion Leaders
Al Gore
Allen Greenspan
Bill Bradley
William H. Schlesinger on
May 25, 2005
Former Senator
and Presidential
Candidate in a
speech before
the New York
University Law
School in
September 2006
“For the last fourteen years, I have advocated the elimination of all payroll taxes —
including those for social security and unemployment compensation — and the
replacement of that revenue in the form of pollution taxes — principally on CO2. The
Former Fed
Chairman (NY
Times editorial)
Supports an energy tax (did not specify a carbon tax)
(Retired U.S
Senator) April
1, 2007
Washington
Post Op Ed “We
Can Get Out of
These Ruts”
“We also need to change our tax system to reduce our oil dependence. In general, we
ought to reduce taxes on things we need, such as wages, and raise taxes on whatever
is dangerous to us, such as pollution and resource depletion. We could implement a
$1 per gallon gasoline tax; or an equivalent carbon tax, which is a tax on any energy
source that emits carbon dioxide; or equivalent taxes on other major air pollutants:
volatile organics, nitrogen oxide, lead, sulfurous dioxide and particulates……The
gasoline or carbon tax would encourage the nation to reduce its dependence on
insecure sources of foreign oil, and with payroll taxes reduced to 15 percent of labor
costs, businesses would have an incentive to hire workers.”
Member of the
National
Academy of
Sciences and
Dean of the
Nicholas School
of the
“We need to be the world’s technology leader of the 21st century, not a stubborn
follower of our old inefficient ways. Paul Anderson is right: keep it simple. A tax on
fossil carbon emissions is the way to go.”
overall level of taxation would remain exactly the same. It would be, in other words,
a revenue neutral tax swap. But, instead of discouraging businesses from hiring more
employees, it would discourage business from producing more pollution.”
Page 14 of 27
Environment
and Earth
Sciences at
Duke University
David Frum
Paul Volcker
Kenneth Green and Kevin
Hassett
Joseph Stiglitz
Former
speechwriter for
George W.
Bush
Writing recently (Nov. 9, 2006) in The Wall Street Journal, urged the President to
send Congress a carbon tax bill.
Former
Chairman of the
Federal
Reserve, speech
to the American
Chamber of
Commerce in
Egypt, reported
February 6,
2007, in the
International
Herald Tribune
Speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, Volcker said the
argument that taxes on oil or carbon emissions, for example, would ruin an economy
was "fundamentally false." "First of all, I don't think (such a step) is going to have
that much of an impact on the economy overall. Second of all, if you don't do it, you
can be sure that the economy will go down the drain in the next 30 years,"
American
Enterprise
Institute (AEI)
Columbia
University,
Nobel laureate
in economics,
and former
“To an economist, the problem is obvious: polluters are not paying the full costs of
the damage they cause. Pollution is a global externality of enormous proportions.
The advanced countries might mean Bangladesh and the disappearing island states
no harm, but no war could be more devastating.
A global externality can best be dealt with by a globally agreed tax rate. This does
Page 15 of 27
Chairman of the
Council of
Economic
Advisors under
Bill Clinton.
November
2006, “A Cool
Calculus of
Global
Warming.” His
latest book is
Making
Globalization
Work.
Jeffery Sachs
Larry Summers
not mean an increase in overall taxation, but simply a substitution in each country of
a pollution (carbon) tax for some current taxes. It makes much more sense to tax
things that are bad, like pollution, than things that are good, like savings and work.”
Columbia
“Be sure that without a price on carbon, there is no (large) scaled solution to this
University at the problem"
Canada 2020
conference,
reported June
15, 2006
CBSNews and
in the Canadian
press
Former
Secretary of
Treasury
In a statement included under 'additional or dissenting views' included
in the Council on Foreign Relations report released today, Lawrence
Summers former Secretary of the Treasury and former chief economist at
the World Bank and now Charles E. Eliot university Professor at Harvard
University endorsed a ceiling price as a key component of a cap and
trade system in the US.
Page 16 of 27
Summers said:
'The (CFR) Task Force rightly notes that the costs of addressing climate
change are highly uncertain, but I remain concerned that many policy
makers do not sufficiently appreciate how large those uncertainties are
or the consequences of paying them insufficient attention.
Environmental certainty enjoys much attention while uncertainty over the
cost of cutting emissions receives too little. The balance is
wrong, particularly in the short term, since emissions in any given year
matter little, while high costs, even for a short period, can cause
substantial economic harm, particularly to the most vulnerable.
Domestic legislation should strike a careful balance here. I am pleased
that, as support for a cap and trade system, the Task Force 'urges the
use of instruments that help to improve the predictability of compliance
costs.' To this end, a cap and trade system should probably include floors and
ceilings on the price of emissions permits.
Robert Reich
Former
Secretary of
Labor under the
Clinton
Administration,
Professor of
Public Policy,
Goldman
School of Public
Policy,
University of
California at
Berkley. Cofounder of the
Page 17 of 27
American
Project
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Source: Nov 2007 Conference of Mayors Website.
Think Tank and Industry
Consultants
Theodore Roosevelt IV
Lehman Bros.
executive
(Speech at the
Renewable
Energy Finance
Forum, New
York City, June
23, 2005)
“The coming years will undoubtedly witness intensive negotiations on global
warming as concerns mount and the quantitative approach under the Kyoto Protocol
makes little difference. As policy makers search for more effective and efficient
ways to slow the trends, they should consider the fact that harmonized environmental
taxes on carbon are powerful tools for coordinating policies and slowing climate
change.” After Kyoto: Alternative Mechanisms to Control Global Warming.
Foreign Policy in Focus, March 27, 2006
William D. Nordhaus
Robert J. Shapiro
"We want to see Congress, for instance, renew the production tax credit for wind
power and pass an energy bill that includes a carbon tax or cap."
Dartmouth
University,
Economist,
Former Under
Secretary of
Commerce for
Economic
Affairs in the
Clinton
"Carbon taxes would be a better response to the risks of global warming than
emissions caps and tradable permits (commonly referred to as cap-and-trade)…
[Carbon taxes] are much less vulnerable to evasion and market manipulation,
providing a more stable and transparent system for consumers and industry alike.
[Carbon taxes] do not create the price volatility and administrative problems
associated with cap and trade." “A cap-and-trade system -- involving plant-by
plant-measurements -- would be difficult to administer, he said, and would provide
"incentives for cheating and evasion." February 2007 report, Addressing the Risks of
Climate Change: The Environmental Effectiveness and Economic Efficiency of
Page 18 of 27
Edward Snyder
David Wyss
Michael Canes
Administration
Emissions Caps and Tradable Permits, Compared to Carbon Taxes, sponsored by
the American Consumer Institute
Dean of the
University of
Chicago’s
Graduate
School of
Business, in
comments to
Reuters, (U.S.
Consumers,
Companies
Feeling Green,
January 28,
2007
"The political consensus [favoring climate action] is coming together but we’re still a
ways away from good policy. We need to recognize that carbon is a ‘bad,’ tax it, and
let the market work." However, as Reuters noted, "While President Bush devoted a
large portion of his State of the Union address to energy, he did not utter the two
magic words that Snyder wanted to hear — carbon tax."
Standard &
Poor’s Corp,
Wall Street
Journal
Is It Time for a New Tax on Energy? Forty of 47 economists polled by the Wall
Street Journal February 2 – 7, 2007, who answered say the best way to do encourage
alternative fuels isn’t in President Bush’s energy proposals: but a new tax on fossil
fuels. . "Economists generally are in favor of free-market solutions, but there are
times when you need to intervene," said David Wyss at Standard & Poor’s Corp.
"We’re already in the danger zone" because of the outlook for oil supplies and
concerns about climate change, he said. A majority of the economists said a tax on
fossil fuels would be the most economically sound way to encourage alternatives. A
tax would raise the price of fossil fuels and make alternatives, which today often are
more costly to produce, more competitive in the consumer market. "A tax puts
pressure on the market, rather than forcing an artificial solution on it," said Mr.
Wyss. Feb. 8, 2007
A private
consultant and
Between a cap system and a carbon tax, "a carbon tax will be the much more costeffective way to go
Page 19 of 27
former chief
economist for
the American
Petroleum
Institute
Greg Mankiw (Mank-QU)
William Moomaw
Lee Lane
Former Member
of Bush 43
Administration
Council of
Economic
Advisors.
Published
writings 2005 to
current
Tufts University
Professor,
Author on four
major IPCC
reports
Former
Executive
Director of the
Policy Climate
Center
Strategic Options for Bush Administration Climate Policy AEI Book Description:
“With the threat of Kyoto-style cap-and-trade programs looming larger with each
passing year, Lane argues that the Bush administration should consider adopting a
modest carbon tax. This would be vastly more efficient than emissions trading and
would cut off the growing political momentum towards reengaging with the Kyoto
system. (At the very least, a cap should include a "safety valve," providing an
unlimited supply of affordable credits, essentially transforming the trading program
into a tax.).” November 26, 2006
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James Hansen
William A. Pizer
T. Boone Pickens
Director, NASA
Goddard
Institute for
Space Studies,
“The Threat to
the Planet” NY
Times Review
of Books by
James Hansen.
Also speech at
American
University on
April 16, 2007
“A good energy policy, economists agree, is not difficult to define. Fuel taxes should
encourage conservation, but with rebates to taxpayers so that the government
revenue from the tax does not increase. The taxpayer can use his rebate to fill his
gas-guzzler if he likes, but most people will eventually reduce their use of fuel in
order to save money, and will spend the rebate on something else. With slow and
continual increases of fuel cost, energy consumption will decline. The economy will
not be harmed. Indeed, it will be improved since the trade deficit will be reduced; so
will the need to protect US access to energy abroad by means of diplomatic and
military action. US manufacturers would be forced to emphasize energy efficiency in
order to make their products competitive internationally. Our automakers need not go
bankrupt.”
A senior fellow A carbon tax offers certainty about the price of polluting, which appeals to many
at the centrist
economists and businesses. Pizer estimates that the benefit-to-cost ratio of a taxthink tank
based system would be five times that of a cap-and-trade system.
Resources for
the Future and a
former senior
economist for
President Bush's
Council of
Economic
Advisers
Oil and gas
industry leader
and
philanthropist
(Quote from an
op-ed by Robert
"proposes that we increase gasoline taxes enough to raise the price of gasoline to $5 a
gallon and use the revenues to cut the payroll taxes paid by employees and
employers."
Page 21 of 27
Walker, Global
Warming
Response Markets or
Taxes? San
Francisco
Chronicle,
March 23,
2007)
Steven Running
Ian W. H. Parry
University of
Montana
Professor of
Ecology, Feb.
27, 2006
(reported by the
Helena
Independent
Record)
"The first thing we need to do - and it’s highly unpopular - we really need to put a
carbon tax that represents the impact carbon emissions have on the world. We need
to have five-dollar-a-gallon gas. I’m probably going to be hung in Helena for saying
that, but it’s true." Remarks at an Audubon Society seminar, "Climate Change: What
the Future May Hold for Montana’s Plant and Animal Communities"
Senior Fellow,
Resources for
the Future,
Fiscal
Interactions and
the Case for
Carbon Taxes
Over
Grandfathered
Carbon Permits
Oxford Review
of Economic
“Nonetheless, on economic grounds there appears to be an almost overwhelming
case for an internationally harmonized carbon tax, at least if taxes could be
introduced in a revenue-neutral fashion in individual nations. The efficiency costs of
moderate carbon taxes can be dramatically lower than those of equivalently scaled
grandfathered permits, and for the United States, costs might actually be negative.
These economic arguments, in addition to the transparency of the carbon tax
compared with the endless bargaining over intercountry permit allocations endemic
in the Kyoto Protocol, suggest that a regime of harmonized taxes is more likely to
achieve what is ultimately the most important objective -- the establishment of a
credible international emissions control regime that will stand the test of time.”
Page 22 of 27
Policy, 2003
Also, March 29,
2007 AEI event
Jim Hansen
Professor
http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2008/TippingPointsNear_20080623.pdf (p 32)
Monica Prasad
Northwestern
University
assistant
professor and
fellow
Monica Prasad, a Northwestern University assistant professor and faculty fellow at
Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research, said Denmark’s successful
reduction of per capita CO2 emissions by 15 percent from 1990 to 2005 worked not
only because money went back to industry – but also because the tax hit industry as
opposed to consumers at the pump. Source: New York Times Editorial, March 25,
2008
“An increase in gasoline taxes – the first instinct of many American policy makers
when the idea of a carbon tax comes up – would . . . be the wrong policy for the
United States. Higher gas taxes would raise revenue but do little to curb pollution,”
Prasad writes. Instead, she suggests that the U.S. “should follow Denmark’s
example: tax the industrial emission of carbon and return the revenue to industry for
R and D”
Tom Crocker
University of
Wisconsin
economist
(retired)
Designed the pollution trading concept in early 1960s (that was used by those
economists who adapted it for acid rain trading)
Cap-and-Trade’s Unlikely Critics: Its Creators
WSJ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125011380094927137.html
August 13, 2009
NGOs/Environmentalists
Lester Brown
Earth Policy
Institute
Let’s Raise Gas Taxes And Lower Income Taxes "We need a way to reduce
gasoline use, one that is practical and politically acceptable. We need a higher gas
tax, but the only way to get a gas tax rise large enough to wean us from imported oil
is to offset the rise with a reduction in the tax on income. The gas tax boost should be
Page 23 of 27
substantial — a rise that will send a strong, clear signal to consumers — and it
should be gradually phased in. A gasoline tax hike of 30¢ a gallon per year for the
next 10 years would send the right signal. This eventual increase of $3 per gallon
would be offset at every step of the way with a reduction in income taxes." May 11,
2006
Charles Komanoff and
Dan Rosenblum
Charles
Komanoff is an
internationally
known energyeconomist and
transporteconomist and
an
environmental
activist in New
York City.
David
Rosenblum has
been Senior
Attorney of the
Pace Law
School Energy
Project. Coauthors of
Carbon Tax:
Crucial Step To
Stop Global
Scorching
A carbon tax is strongly preferable to cap-and-trade systems being promoted by
some large corporations and several major environmental organizations. The key
advantages of carbon taxes over cap-and-trade can be summarized in these words:
predictability, transparency, immediacy, universality, and equity. Carbon taxes are
superior to cap-and-trade programs for six fundamental reasons:
1. Carbon taxes will lend predictability to energy prices, whereas cap-and-trade
systems will do little to mitigate the price volatility.
2. Carbon taxes can be implemented much sooner than complex cap-and-trade
systems.
3. Carbon taxes are transparent and easily understandable, making them more likely
to elicit the necessary public support than an opaque and difficult to understand capand-trade system.
4. Carbon taxes can be implemented with far less opportunity for manipulation by
special interests, while a cap-and-trade system's complexity opens it to exploitation
by special interests and perverse incentives that can undermine public confidence and
undercut its effectiveness.
5. Carbon taxes address emissions of carbon from every sector,.
6. Carbon tax revenues can be returned to the public through progressive tax-shifting,
while the costs of cap-and-trade systems are likely to become a hidden tax as dollars
flow to market participants, lawyers and consultants.
Page 24 of 27
Religious Leaders
Rabbi Arthur
Waskow, The
Shalom Center,
Philadelphia,
web site
A long-time leader in progressive Judaism, has been speaking and organizing about
U.S. "oiloholism" for some time. He has included pro-tax articles on the Shalom
Center web site.
City in
Colorado
Boulder, Colorado will charge residents and businesses the carbon tax based on how
much electricity they use. Most electricity in Boulder is generated at plants that use
coal. The Boulder tax will raise average home bills $1.33 per month and businesses
will pay an extra $3.80 per month, according to the town. The tax will generate about
$1 million for the city annually. Utility Xcel Energy will collect the tax. November
10, 2006
States/Cities
Boulder, Colorado
On the Fence
Stephen Chu, Obama
Energy Secretary designate
Henry Paulson, Bush
Administration Secretary
of Treasury
http://www.eene Endorsed Obama’s cap-and-trade approach. 1/14/09
ws.net/EEDaily/
2009/01/14/1/
http://www.eene "I want something that's fair, credible, efficient, transparent and all of those things,"
ws.net/EEDaily/ Paulson said. "I'd say to you there are, depending on how this is done, it's a
2009/01/14/1/
distinction without a difference. Under various schemes, you can get something that
achieves a very similar result." 1/14/09
Page 25 of 27
British Columbian Canadian supporters of Carbon tax - $5 Canadian to $30 Canadian tax
Carbon Tax Letter
Signatories - Association
UBC Economics
Siwan Anderson, Paul Beaudry, Mathilde Bombardini, Gorkem Celik, Clive
Chapple, Brian Copeland, Michael Devereux, Erwin Diewert, Catherine Douglas,
Mauricio Drehlichman, Mukesh Eswaran, Patrick Francois, Giovanni Gallipoli,
Robert Gateman, David Green, Yoram Halevy, Joseph Henrich, Viktoria
Hnatkovska, Atsushi Inoue, Tsvetanka Karagyozova, Ashok Kotwal, Amartya
Lahiri, Thomas Lemieux, Kevin Milligan, Hugh Neary, Donald Paterson, Michael
Peters, Angela Redish, W. Craig Riddell, Shinichi Sakata, Henry Siu, Rashid
Sumaila, William Troost, Okan Yilankaya
Richard Barichello, Anthony Boardman, Keith Head, Thomas Hellman, Sanghoon
Lee, Peter Nemetz, Thomas Ross, Ratna Shrestha, Veikko Theile, Ilan Vertinsky,
Ralph Winter
Richard Barichello, Katherine Baylis, Sumeet Gulati, James Vercammen
Sauder School of
Business
Faculty of Land and
Food Systems
SFU Economics
Steeve Mongrain, Gordon Myers, Krishna Pendakur, Arthur Robson, Nicolas
Schmitt, Simon Woodcock
Dominique Gross, Jonathan Kesselman, John Richards
Mark Jaccard
Public Policy
School of Resource and
Environmental
Management
University of Victoria
Economics
British Columbia
Merwan Engineer, Martin Farnham, Elisabeth Gugl, Malcolm Rutherford, Herbert
Schuetz, Paul Schure, David Scoones, G. Cornelius van Kooten
Source: March
25, 2008
Vancouver Sun
In February 2008, British Columbia became the first government entity in North
America to adopt a carbon tax, focusing on taxing consumers while providing them
with tax cuts to help address the cost.
Page 26 of 27
Democratic Party of
Japan (DPJ)
The new administration of Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 25% by 2020 from 1990 levels.
Although the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is still formulating a
roadmap, government officials have discussed possibly introducing both a carbon tax
and emissions trading. Whether they would be rolled out simultaneously or one at a
time is unclear.
September 30, 2009
http://www.energyintel.com/DocumentDetail.asp?document_id=639463
Cabinet for Japan’s
Prime Minister, Yasuo
Fukuda
Japan
Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda’s Cabinet appears to prefer CO2 taxes as an
alternative strategy to meet the nation’s Kyoto Protocol target.
Shigeru Sato, Bloomberg News, 18 December 2007
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