No Carbon Tax

A carbon tax is a policy with one definable goal: to raise the cost of traditional, reliable, affordable sources of energy.  This includes the domestically produced gasoline, diesel, coal, and natural gas that fuel our cars and trucks, power our homes, and keep our economy going strong every day. 

While individual carbon tax proposals vary in their severity, numerous academic studies clearly show the harm that any carbon tax would inflict on our economy.  It is widely acknowledged, for example, that a $40 per ton carbon tax would increase the price consumers pay at the pump by about 38 cents per gallon.  And a study commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers found that a carbon tax could destroy anywhere from nearly 4 million to more than 20 million American jobs.

There is simply nothing conservative about implementing a massive new energy tax under which the federal government would be empowered to collect hundreds of billions more dollars each year from American taxpayers, and then entrusted to do the “right” thing – however that might be defined – with its vast newfound stream of revenue.  A “carbon dividend” is simply wealth redistribution by another name. And history is littered with the economic casualties wrought by heavy-handed government interference in the marketplace.

Nor would a carbon tax represent any sort of “insurance policy” on climate change.  Contrary to proponents’ rhetoric, a nationwide carbon tax implemented across the United States would have no measurable impact on global climate. Even a climate policy that eliminated U.S. carbon dioxide emissions altogether would – according to accredited climate models used by U.S. government agencies – only impact global temperature by less than 0.2 degrees by the year 2100.  And a carbon tax achieving a more modest 20 percent reduction in CO2 emissions would still wreak significant economic harm on our nation’s families and businesses, while impacting temperatures by an even less significant 0.02 degrees.

The impact of a carbon tax on both gasoline and electricity prices would be swift, direct, and severe. Simply put, a carbon tax is not in America’s best interest.