Scrap Cap And Trade, Go With Revenue Neutral Carbon Tax

Tom Friedman argues that cap and trade needs to go and favors a revenue neutral carbon tax instead.

One of the great virtues of cap and trade was that it was a tax in disguise, but Friedman argues that game is lost:

Advocates of cap-and-trade argue that it is preferable to a simple carbon tax because it fixes a national cap on carbon emissions and it “hides the ball” — it doesn’t use the word “tax” — even though it amounts to one. So it can get through Congress. That was true as long as no one thought cap-and-trade could ever pass, but now that it might under Mr. Obama, opponents are not playing hide the ball anymore.

In the past two weeks, you could hear a chorus of Republicans, coal-state Democrats, right-wing think tanks and enviro-skeptics all singing the same tune: “Cap-and-trade is a tax. Obama is going to raise your taxes and sacrifice U.S. jobs to combat this global-warming charade, which many scientists think is nonsense. Worse, cap-and-trade will be managed by Wall Street. If you liked credit-default swaps, you’re going to love carbon-offset swaps.”

Onetime supporter John McCain has taken to calling it "cap and tax".

The alternative:

Since the opponents of cap-and-trade are going to pillory it as a tax anyway, why not go for the real thing — a simple, transparent, economy-wide carbon tax?

Representative John B. Larson, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, has circulated a draft bill that would impose “a per-unit tax on the carbon-dioxide content of fossil fuels, beginning at a rate of $15 per metric ton of CO2 and increasing by $10 each year.” The bill sets a goal, rather than a cap, on emissions at 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050, and if the goal for the first five years is not met, the tax automatically increases by an additional $5 per metric ton. The bill implements a fee on carbon-intensive imports, as well, to press China to follow suit. Larson would use most of the income to reduce people’s payroll taxes: We tax your carbon sins and un-tax your payroll wins.

People get that — and simplicity matters. Americans will be willing to pay a tax for their children to be less threatened, breathe cleaner air and live in a more sustainable world with a stronger America. They are much less likely to support a firm in London trading offsets from an electric bill in Boston with a derivatives firm in New York in order to help fund an aluminum smelter in Beijing, which is what cap-and-trade is all about. People won’t support what they can’t explain.

Greg Mankiw is ready to rally support! Or was.

TANGENTIALLY RELATED:  In the course of combing Ye Olde Archives for the Mankiw thing this flip-flop by Krugman on Al Gore and the enviros embrace of market mechanisms such as taxes or cap and trade caught my eye.

[end of thread]

Comments

[Soylent Red]

He didn't bow, but rather stooped?

I don't remember him stooping to the level of the teeny tiny Queen of England.

As for whether Zero is stupid or evil...

If I had to pick, I'd pick stupid.

But I believe he is a combination of stupid and vain. He just doesn't have any motivation to give a rat's ass about anything unless it feeds his ego. Give him a cheering crowd and adoring press corps and he's happy as a haram pig in shit to leave the governing up to Rahm, Reid, and Nancy.

Notice the flashing of the big smile. The super-cool half jog down the boarding stairway. The paparazzi shot look across the roaring crowd as he strides across the stage. It's all image with this guy.

He's President Obamalander. "And now I will will unveil my latest 'look'. I call it...'Blue State Resolve"..."

[narciso]

Well I figured as much, a business vs. a prosecutor (seeing how prosecutors seem to acting up there) They pulled the same garbage with our property tax cap, with the mayor of one of ritsiest suburbs, Weston, going to court. eventually the courts sent it back for 'retoiling' I would figure, the lodestone of conservatism in the Klondike would have an opinion, but I would be wrong, one of his latest bits, blaming the cut back in cruise ships, not on the recession, but on some bill that was passed two hours ago,

In other news 'the most interesting person in the world,' Joe Biden, just told Bibi
Netanyahu not to push forward on an attack on Iran. Hint Joe, you don't tell the son of the leading scholar of Inquisition, that it's inprudent to prevent a nuclear holocaust "But we sure dodged a bullet with..." God almighty how did we end up with such a clueless population? Another rhetorical question I know.

[bad]

Don't insult Zoolander that way, Soylent. The guy was deep compared to some ....

Blue State Resolve.... ha ha ha ha ha

Does he practice privately or with Michelle?

[PeterUK]

"Does he practice privately or with Michelle?"

Ah,that's where her learned to bow.Either that or showing respect to some Don in Chicago.

[PeterUK]

"Blue State Resolve",sounds like a deodorant.

[bad]

showing respect to some Don in Chicago.

Hence the ring kissing...or was he trying to suckup to Catholics?

[narciso]

"Blue Steele, Le Tigre, it's all the same face, am I the only one here, not on crazy pills," Mogatu, who would think that film was so prophetic,

[daddy]

Fagan today is loudly trumpeting the The Property Tax Cap Movement, Sullivan the Conservative, and effectively hammering the ADN and the Dem's for falsely lying about both. It is nice to see him on the proper side of an issue and I have to give him credit when he does it.

[bad]

The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air. John Holdren told The Associated Press... One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays.

My mom is gonna have a cow. She is going nuts from the last few long, cold, snowy, icy winters.

LUN

[ben]

"One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays."

I love the smell of my tax dollars shooting up into the upper atmosphere in the morning.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

BTW.How is Obama going to explain it when he goes on Haj?

Don't know PUK, but Allah best be prepared to be tossed under the camel train if somebody has a camera when BHO takes his walk around the rock.

[bad]

Clarice, a 98 year old women spent 30 hours knitting while waiting to be rescued from the Italian earthquake rubble.

LUN

[hit and run]

One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays.

"Another such extreme option to achieve the same effect includes doing nothing, hoping for an Iranian-induced nuclear winter, with the added benefit from the viewpoint of the administration of a final resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

[PeterUK]

"One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays."

There was a dinosaur with the same idea once,about sixty five million years ago.
Best chisel the One's nam somewhere so any survivors can name this the Obaman Extinction Event.

[narciso]

That'll go as well as when they blocked out the sun, in the Animatrix to stop the machines, you know how well that turned out, see the Matrix. This guy cannot be a real science advisor, this is a delayed April Fool's joke, right, and for his next trick how to turn lead into gold

[bad]

Does the administration put this idiocy out there so their final plans look merely asinine by comparison?

[Soylent Red]

final resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And a cost savings by elimination of foreign aid to Israel and Palestine of $3.44 billion annually.

[PeterUK]

bad,,
Not idiocy,criminal lunacy.The Germans are talking about dumping iron sulphate into the sea to make the algae bloom.This tit is contemplating pumping pollution into the atmosphere.
Time to start warming up the crimes against humanity trials.

[RichatUF]

Does the administration put this idiocy out there so their final plans look merely asinine by comparison?

Hummm...acting crazy on the stage so they don't appear crazy when their crazy plans are revealed...so we have moved from African Marxism to Shakespearean tragedy, I feel so much better now.

[bad]

Good grief!! What is the world coming to?

[PeterUK]

bad,
Strangely,the greenies don't seem to have a problem with this kind of pollution.Pump shit into the atmosphere,dump chemicals into the sea,disfigure the landscape with windmills and power lines,bring industrail economies to their knees.Just to save some foul breathed ursine predator,no,not fat Al,the polar bear.

[Sue]

Look, the earth is cooling and even Kim doesn't know for how long. Obama has to do something that they can claim caused the earth to cool.

[RichatUF]

What is the world coming to?

A swift and catastrophic end.

[Old Lurker]

What Rich said...

[clarice]

I have been busy and missed most of this though I plan to rip off as much as i can in this cap and trade business..Did I read something about The Won being shot into space to direct the sun to stop it? Or was that something I dreamed in an over due nap?

[JM Hanes]

PUK:

"The Germans are talking about dumping iron sulphate into the sea to make the algae bloom."

They've already done it! That's why we're moving on to polluting the upper atmosphere. Don't you just love the smell of money burning in the morning?

MayBee:

"Why not just an across-the-board VAT? Why target carbon"

Because it's a Sin Tax, silly, not an Ønerous Burden on the righteous.

[JM Hanes]

This one's for Daddy.

[clarice]

bad, I saw that..Love that woman. I almost sent that to a friend who has a chichi knit shp in upper Manhattan with a suggestion she send a lot of wool to that woman.

[clarice]

I can prove he's lying, Soylent and I did--it'll be up on AT soon I think.
Guy forgets about videos and freeze frames..HEH HEH HEH

[PeterUK]

JM Hanes,
Three cheers for the shrimps.Of course there is the little problem of CO2,if algae thrive on it and there is an excess,why is it necessary to create more algae?

[PeterUK]

Even the Japanese surrendered with more dignity than Obowma.

[Pofarmer]

Does the administration put this idiocy out there so their final plans look merely asinine by comparison?

Truly a Laugh Out Loud comment. Good thing I wasn't taking a drink.

What a bunch of doofi.

[PeterUK]

I hope the legal eagles here are keeping track of the antics of the ecomaniacs,ready with the injunctions,class actions and criminal negligence charges when this lunacy takes a disasterous turn.

[matt]

Consider Obama's energy policy to date:

ANWR - Closed to further drilling
Offshore drilling - now forbidden
Oil Sands & Shale Oil - forbidden
Yucca Mountain - closed
Cap & Trade - proposed (not likely)

Does anyone see a pattern?

We are in the solar business among other things, and it is a scam supported only through large government subsidies. The high paying jobs are mainly mythical and will only last a few years as the infrastructure builds out to @ 15% of total capacity. The grid can't handle more. At the same time you have Feinstein trying to ban solar farms in the California desert, which is almost as empty as the Empty Quarter.

This guy's energy policy is, by these actions, a path to disaster.

[clarice]

Sorry,PUK, the money follows the dispensers--the entire gang is into make believe..there's much more money in it.

[Pofarmer]

Hey matt.

What would it take to set up a building consulting and installing solar cells?

[Pofarmer]

set up a business consulting homeowners and installing solar cells.

Geez.

[Pofarmer]

We pissed away 30 years when we should have been building many nukes

Yes, we should have, and now we're 50 years behind.

[bad]

Matt, hasn't Oregon or Washington state ixnayed wind power as well?

[RichatUF]

Does anyone see a pattern?

Yep.

[Extraneus]

I ♥ nukes.

Me, too, and I agree we've pissed away 30 years of building more, but we're short-term thinkers. The Chinese are long-term thinkers, and they're building as many as they can. Think today plus 50 years.

You have to love it that it'll take spewing pollution into the atmosphere in order to initiate the global cooling. Is that rich or what? Are they going to accept that facial egg-wash just so Obama can claim to have stopped the warming?

One thing I've never heard the Goracle or any of his acolytes explain is why today's climate is optimal, and why something warmer or cooler might not actually be better worldwide.

[SunnyDay]

Seen this one? BWAHAHAHAHAHA so edumicated he is.

LUN

[narciso]

The way I see it, is the planet is infinite more complex and vast, for us to have such a
great effect on it, in only the last two yearss of industrial development or so. It's utter arrogance in my view, the planet has warming cycles, New York and D.C, were underwater 80,000 years ago, ice ages, and little ice ages like the early 19th century.
Very little had significant human imput, and being that the next set of rules will exempt 2.5 billion people, even less so.

[JM Hanes]

SunnyDay:

Had to groan at this bit from your link:

At a news conference afterward, Obama said his debut on the international stage had convinced him that “political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate,” where he served before entering the White House.

He appears to know as little about political interactions in or outside of Europe as he could possibly know about how Senators actually get things done in Washington. Alas, sans a Republican majority anywhere, we're going to have to put up with him ostentatiously patting himself on the back for being such a success at playing US CEO in Chief. Unfortunately, what he's managed to accomplish with a compliant Congress already really is quite astonishing. He's hardly ever had to interact with Republicans in his entire career; one can only pray he'll stumble on them some time soon.

[JM Hanes]

PUK:

"why is it necessary to create more algae?"

Good question! By the time anyone gets around to asking it, of course, Obama will be taking credit for the cooling that quiescent sunspots may soon provide.

[PD]

I just heard "the whitehouse" said the Somali pirates are our "top priority"

So the administration surefootedly continues to lurch from one top priority to another. Steady on, now.

"What was in the news this morning, Axey? Yeah, that's today's top priority! Tell Gibby to get the word out."

[daddy]

Well maybe I'm missing something, but what with all those things Matt listed above:

"Consider Obama's energy policy to date:

ANWR - Closed to further drilling
Offshore drilling - now forbidden
Oil Sands & Shale Oil - forbidden
Yucca Mountain - closed
Cap & Trade - proposed (not likely)"

The one guy on the planet who ought to be happier about that than anyone, is King Abdullah, the guy who owns Saudi Arabia's Oil Fields. So my question, is why isn't he getting down on his hands and knees in front of Obama instead of the other way round?

[daddy]

Thanks JMH for that very nice photo.

Here's one from one of my favorite daily websites that has a bit to do with the topic of this post. Our">http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090405.html">Our oozing Sun.

And if you click on "Archives" at the bottom left, you get about a thousand great shots over the last 10 years. Here's another favorite, shot from the">http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090111.html">the back side of Saturn in solar silhouette.

[SunnyDay]

JMH - I posted a response, but it seems typhuspad ate it.

I would never have believe you if you had told me Zero would get this far - I wouldn't have believed he would even try.

I hope people wake up in time to vote for some more change - in the opposite direction.

[JM Hanes]

Daddy:

Incredibly beautiful picture of Saturn! It's hard to believe it's really a photograph, isn't it? You've probably discovered the Earth Observatory yourself. If not, you might enjoy subscribing to their weekly email with links to all the latest views and news, which I love getting. I'm sort of a mapping freak though, and the internet (Terraserver! Google Earth! Blaeu Bros!) was, like, invented for me.