1. Energy and Environmental Implications of a Carbon Tax in the United States
- Author:
- Shashank Mohan, Peter Marsters, Whitney Herndon, and John Larsen
- Publication Date:
- 07-2018
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center on Global Energy Policy
- Abstract:
- A price on carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has long been a preferred instrument among economists and other academics for addressing the threat of climate change.[1] The idea is simple: putting a price on carbon internalizes the societal costs caused by consumption of fossil fuels and other activities that emit GHGs. The concept sits firmly in the tradition of Pigouvian taxation, which has been applied to address other “externalities”—from the health system costs of tobacco and alcohol use to the environmental cost of substances that deplete Earth’s ozone layer. The concept of pricing carbon by way of a tax has been gaining traction among economists as an efficient, market-based strategy for reducing GHG emissions in the United States. More recently, the idea has garnered the attention of prominent Republicans and Democrats within and outside of Congress as well as advocates on the left and right poles of the national political spectrum.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus