Why revenue-neutral carbon taxes are essential,
what's happening now, and how you can help

The Obama Administration and the new Congress are being called upon to address 21st Century climate realities. In a carbon-constrained world, a permanent and increasing U.S. carbon tax is essential to reduce the emissions that are driving global warming. 

  • A carbon tax is a tax on the carbon content of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas).
  • A carbon tax is the most economically efficient means to convey crucial price signals and spur carbon-reducing investment and low-carbon behavior. Our spreadsheet shows how fast emissions will fall.
  • Carbon taxes should be phased in so businesses and households have time to adapt.
  • A carbon tax should be revenue-neutral: government can soften the impacts of added costs by paying back the tax revenues ("dividends") or reducing other taxes ("tax-shifting").
  • Support for a carbon tax is growing steadily among public officials; economists; scientists; policy experts; business, religious, and environmental leaders; and ordinary citizens.

We invite you to learn more about carbon taxing, to share your thoughts about it, and click here to sign a petition and write your Congressmember saying you agree that setting a direct price on carbon is the most potent policy to solve the climate crisis.

Did you know...

100-year_2.gif

Because CO2 stays “resident” in the atmosphere for at least a century, the U.S.
is responsible for more than 3x as much active greenhouse gas as China.

Latest from the blog:

Rep. Doggett on Waxman-Markey: “I Cannot Support It.”

06/26/2009 by Charles Komanoff Comments (5)

Following is the statement delivered by Rep. Lloyd Doggett during today's House floor debate on the Waxman-Markey “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009” (H.R. 2454, or “ACESA”). Rep. Doggett, a Democrat, has represented Texas's 25th CD (central Texas, including Austin) since 1995, and is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

This energy bill's fine print betrays its laudable purpose. The real cap is on the public interest and the trade is the billions from the public to polluters. It is too weak to greatly spur new technologies and green jobs.  An Administration analysis shows that doing nothing actually results in more new renewable electricity generation capacity than approving this bill.

lloyd_doggett_jrwolivet

Vital authority for the EPA is stripped, but 2 billion additional tons of pollution are authorized every year, forever.  Residential-consumer protection incredibly is entrusted to the mercy of utility companies.  Exempting a hundred new coal plants and paying billions to Old King Coal leaves him, indeed, a very merry old soul.

This bill is 85% different from what President Obama proposed months ago.  No wonder his Budget Director called this type of bill 'the largest corporate welfare program in the history of the United  States.'

Until greatly improved, until families share in the billions this bill grants powerful lobbies, I cannot support it.

(Click here to view a video of Rep. Doggett's floor statement. Other CTC posts immediately prior to this present more detailed critiques of the Waxman-Markey bill.)

Photo: Flickr / jrwolivet.

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