Is a Carbon Tax Actually Good for the Economy?

Ecocentric (Jun 22 2010) Cap and Trade , Carbon Tax , Emissions , Fossil Fuel

1. Over at the Curious Capitalist blog–which I admit has both a better name and logo than Ecocentric—my TIME colleague Stephen Gandel looks at the common assumption that carbon pricing is bad for the economy. We hear rhetoric about carbon pricing being a "job-killing national energy tax" (thanks, House Republican leader John Boehner), but Gandel examines the evidence: The economic theoretical case for some sort of carbon tax is very simple. Pollution is a negative byproduct of the industrial process that neither the polluters or the people buying the product directly pay for. Instead government in the end has to pick up the bill, and that means general taxpayers, like you and me. Taxing companies directly for polluting can remedy the problem. But in practice, many worry that a carbon tax will hurt our already weak economy, and hasten our decades of decline in our manufacturing base. So the ... (Read Full Article)

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