WSJ Op Ed: ‘The climate-change justification for a carbon tax is bogus’ — ”Will the Carbon Tax Make a Comeback?’
'A carbon tax is a slippery slope. Once in place, small changes in rates would yield large increases in federal revenue. Who is naive enough to believe that Congress wouldn't be tempted to make small increases that accumulate over time? Across Europe, value-added taxes (VATs) target consumption just as a carbon tax would—and over the years those tax rates have only gone up'
In Germany, for example, an initial VAT rate of 10% has climbed to 19%, and in France the rate is 19.6%, up from 13.6% initially. Several European countries have VAT rates above 20%.
What’s more, the climate-change justification for a carbon tax is bogus. Greenhouse-gas emissions are rising in China and other emerging economies, not in the United States. Carbon-dioxide emissions in the U.S. have been declining and by 2035 will return to 2005 levels, the Energy Information Administration projects.
