Wednesday, July 05, 2006

The Big Idea: An Energy Tax

The Big Idea: An Energy Tax

He's more into the idea of revenue neutral than I would be but I like the main premise:

A carbon tax raises the price of using carbon-based energy, everything from coal to gasoline. As a society, we're better off if we curtail our use of fossil fuels. We can start to make progress on global warming; we will improve air quality; we will be less dependent on places like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela; and we could even improve traffic congestion, the bane of just about every metropolitan area in the U.S., by making it more expensive to commute long distances alone by car.

Have you seen the sales figures for SUVs lately? People kvetched about SUVs for a decade, but they only stopped buying the really big ones when gas got to be $3 a gallon.


And if you would have to grease the skids with offsetting cuts in other taxes, that serves my 30 mpg the couple times a week I drive, bike the rest of the time self interest... parson the smug self righteousness.

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