Links tagged “carbon tax”

Noah Kaufman was named March 3 as a senior economist in the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Though Biden's climate team so far has sent mixed signals on carbon pricing, Kaufman has been blunt that such a measure is one of the most important ways to address climate change.

"For any policymaker with the goals of deep decarbonization and a strong economy, putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions is a no-brainer," he said during congressional testimony last year before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.:  "Then Barack Obama was elected. Al Gore debouched himself of a new edict. An alleged climate crisis no longer required any unpopular energy taxes at all. By some process not explained, the emergency had become a political free lunch, requiring congresspersons only to do what they like doing anyway, dishing out subsidies to favored constituents." ...

"Suppose you actually cared about climate change. You would not throw episodic subsidies at things that can survive only as long as you are subsidizing them. You would try to set in motion long-term trends that have the advantage of being in accordance with existing trends." 

Treasury Sec. nominee Janet Yellen: “I will look to appoint someone at a very senior level to lead our efforts,” Yellen told members of the Senate Finance Committee. She said doing so would create a hub within Treasury that would focus on financial system-related risk posed by climate change, and tax policy incentives to affect change.

“We need to seriously look at assessing the risk to the financial system from climate change,” Yellen said.

Morano: "It is amazing to me that everyone here believes that you can legislate in Pennsylvania -- a better climate by raising energy costs harming yourself economically, and turning over energy decisions to politicians lobbyists and activists who are going to join up with other states and try to dictate Pennsylvania energy policy." 

"And this is the key, Pennsylvania has been the energy success story of America, you have led the way in our CO2 reductions if you really cared about CO2 reductions you would be embracing your fracking revolution you would be embracing Pennsylvania's energy legacy instead you're turning it over to a cap and trade carbon taxation scheme that's going to raise the cost of energy for Pennsylvania's have no impact not only on the weather, but it couldn't they won't even impact global CO2 levels in any way shape or form." 

"We hear people like John Kerry and others warning of this national security threat of climate change, well what security dread is going to be, then to shoot ourselves and our own foot by hampering domestic energy production in Pennsylvania leading the way with fracking. What's that gonna mean we're going to rely on foreign sources of energy, we're going to have to go back to fighting Middle East wars to get oil and energy when there's no reason to when we're energy dominant for the first time since Harry Truman was president."

In its most recent World Economic Outlook, the IMF implies that potentially catastrophic climate change can be avoided with a green fiscal stimulus amounting to 1 percent of GDP and carbon taxes of between $10 to $40 a ton in 2030. ...

Economic progress and rising living standards have come from capitalism’s ability to produce more from less, through constantly improving capital and labor productivity. Widespread adoption of renewables throws this process into reverse. It is the opposite of progress. President-Elect Biden’s promised 10 million new clean energy jobs can be more than met, Perry calculates, by switching to 100% solar energy – but as he points out, “those energy jobs will come at a high price in the form of higher energy costs for consumers and businesses, less dependable electric power, more blackouts, a reduction of jobs in energy-intensive sectors, reduced economic growth and an erosion of the nation’s prosperity.”

Biden’s pick for Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, is a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council, a group lobbying Congress to pass a national carbon tax. As ATR reports, such a carbon tax would cost Americans more than two trillion dollars over the next ten years, while sharply raising the average American’s energy costs.

Biden’s choice to head up the Office of Management and Budget (OBM), Neera Tandemn, has voiced support for two different costly soda tax proposals that would hit low-income Americans the hardest, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) analysis reveals.

UN Paris pact could be used to levy carbon taxes, block infrastructure projects. 

Chris Horner: Rejoining the UN Paris climate treaty will immediately subject U.S. energy policy — and thereby economic and to some extent trade policy — to a UN “climate conciliation commission”... Already, as the United Kingdom has shown, developed nations’ courts can be expected to cite the Paris climate treaty in blocking infrastructure development. The UK’s Court of Appeal ruled earlier this year that Heathrow Airport cannot be expanded because that would violate the UK’s ‘net zero’ commitment under Paris.

Then, Canada offered a reminder how progressive politicians will raise taxes in the name of complying with Paris: In Ottawa, “The parliamentary budget officer says the federal carbon tax would have to rise over the coming years if the country is to meet emission-reduction targets under the Paris climate accord.” Now we are reminded that the U.S. can also expect a forum for antagonistic nations to bring their complaints about U.S. policy and claims of non-compliance with Paris’s required “Net Zero” agenda for resolution. ...

Paris requires, and mandates the U.S. revisit and tighten “Green New Deal”-style policies every five years. This is among the many reasons why the Paris climate agreement is a treaty, and also why it never would have been ratified. However, very soon, Americans may nonetheless be subject to its long-envisioned climate court."