What Would a Carbon Tax Look Like?
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 03.22.08
Image courtesy of WRI Staff via flickr
While the current debate in the U.S. seems to have shifted decisively in favor of the cap-and-trade option - as evidenced by the three main candidates' positions on the issue - it might still be instructive to consider the implications of a carbon tax. A new study published in the latest issue of ES&T does just that, predicting how electric utilities and consumers would react to a tax on the greenhouse gas.
The study, led by Carnegie Mellon University's Jay Apt and Granger Morgan, sought to estimate the likely emissions reductions and consumption cuts a $35/ton tax would incur on utilities and consumers, respectively. They found that it would lead to a 10% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from utilities in the Northeast and Midwest and to a (roughly) 3% reduction in Texas; the regional fluctuations depend largely on the portfolio of power plants available - hence states like Texas, which rely more on coal-powered plants, would experience larger short-term price increases.
Shifts in consumer demand also varied by region - in part because of different price elasticities of demand (how demand changes as a function of prices) - though Apt and Morgan found that - to a large extent - a $35/t tax would reduce demand and encourage consumers to purchase more energy efficient appliances. Other similar studies had predicted that higher taxes would be necessary to sufficiently shift company investments toward cleaner technologies.
Catherine M. Cooney quotes Alex Farrell, a professor at UC Berkeley, who summed up the carbon tax's impact thusly: "We are reordering the economics of using coal, and the less efficient plants will be used less, with companies relying more on their natural gas plants. That is one-third of the effect. The other two-thirds of the effect are people cutting down on energy use."
Via ::Environmental Science & Technology: What if we suddenly taxed CO2 emissions? (journal)
See also: ::Al Gore Says Carbon Tax Best Choice, ::British Columbia Introduces Smart Carbon Tax
We have a carbon tax here in Boulder if you buy power from Xcel which runs the coal plant here. We're still doing fine. Even during a "recession" the carbon tax has done us no harm. And I'm a poor college student who pays the tax. I don't get what the big deal is. The money's going toward carbon mitigation. I guess that's the problem, haha. People still aren't sure about them so-called "greenhouse gases" and "climate change," haha. Oh, America.
this is just one more of many many taxes we already pay. We do not need more taxes which are counter productive in many cases (the income tax is another bad tax).
Additionally, a tax would be passed to the consumer who may have no control over the producer of carbon.
The government should offer tax credits and other incentives for industry and individuals to reduce their carbon footprints, increase research in alternative energy production and the like.
We need an Apollo program for Energy, and we need it NOW.
The most logical course would include incentives for doing the right thing and new taxes for doing the wrong thing, which would largely be offset by reductions of other taxes such as income tax. If implemented skilfully enough, you get the result you want(lower co2) and hopefully no one has to pay (much) more to big brother in the end. And you stimulate the economy and create jobs. The problem is everyone's brain shuts down when they hear "new tax" before they have a chance to hear the rest of the proposal. This goes for journalists and bloggers, too
The carbon tax is a fraud it's fake enviromentalism from Rockefeller, check into infowars.com for more info