A Carbon Dividend Is Better than a Carbon Tax (co-written by Assistant Professor of Economics Mark Paul)

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- by Project-syndicate.org

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Project-syndicate.org . May 15, 2019

As a response to climate change, a carbon tax is immensely popular among economists from across the political spectrum, and it does have an important role to play. But it is far from sufficient, and putting a price on emissions won’t work if it alienates lower- and middle-income voters.

SARASOTA – Climate change is the world’s most urgent problem, and in the United States, the left, at least, is taking it seriously. Earlier this year, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts, both Democrats, introduced a Green New Deal (GND) resolution, which offers a blueprint for decarbonizing the US economy. But while a growing number of Democratic presidential contenders have endorsed their proposal, centrist Democrats and Republicans continue to cling to a different climate-policy approach.

Read the entire op-ed here.