The Path To Energy Independence: A U.S. Tax On Carbon

• Author: Senator Christopher Dodd
• Pages: 03

Senator Chris Dodd is the senior Senator from Connecticut. A respected legislator who works in a bipartisan fashion to better peoples' lives, Chris Dodd is best known for his work to make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. He also serves as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics. He is a senior member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and is the Chairman of its Children and Families Subcommittee. He also is a member of the Rules and Administration Committee.
It is gratifying to see Congress finally moving towards critically needed action on climate change. This is one of the most far-reaching and momentous issues facing our nation and the world. But in these discussions, too often we are presented with a false dichotomy - a choice between saving the environment and keeping our economy prosperous. However, if we act responsibly, not only can we avert potentially devastating climate change, but we can strengthen our economy by leading the world in developing new green technologies while simultaneously reducing our dangerous dependence on fossil fuels from unstable parts of the world.
In this debate, however, one promising solution to the problem of climate change advocated by some of the world's foremost economists and scientists from across the political spectrum is too often overlooked. That solution is a carbon tax - a fee placed on each ton of carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuels. Indeed, our own Congressional Budget Office determined that a carbon tax would be the most efficient way to address the climate problem. It is a solution endorsed by everyone from NASA scientist James Hansen and former Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers to conservative Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw, a former advisor to President George W. Bush.
The idea is a simple one. We know how much carbon is emitted from the burning of various fossil fuels, and data needed to figure out how much to tax each sale of fossil fuels is already collected for other purposes. Therefore, all that we need to do is set a price for a ton of carbon that will increase over time, leading to decreased carbon emissions as the cost of using dirty fossil fuels overtakes the cost of investing in clean, renewable technologies.
Under a cap-and-trade system, by contrast, the government would set...