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A Carbon Tax to Reduce the Deficit
Dallas Burtraw and Paul R. Portney |
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Mr. President, your administration will need many measures to deal with the federal budget deficit. |
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Paul R. Portney on the merits of a carbon tax
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As part of your deficit reduction strategy, we recommend that you introduce legislation to create a tax on fuels, based on their carbon content, that would increase gradually over time. |
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A carbon tax will lessen the need to raise taxes on labor and capital formation (which we would like to encourage, not discourage); it also will create an incentive to shift to energy sources that contribute less to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. |
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Download this Policy Recommendation
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Dallas Burtraw has concentrated his research interests on the restructuring of the electric utility market, the design of environmental regulation, and the costs and benefits to society of such regulation. His recent work focuses on multipollutant policy choices, greenhouse gas emissions, tradable emission permits, and valuation of natural resource improvements.
Chapter 8. Cleaning Up Power Plant Emissions |
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Paul R. Portney is president of Resources for the Future and is the author or coauthor of ten books, including Public Policies for Environmental Protection. He is former chief economist at the Council on Environmental Quality.
Chapter 6. Rewarding Automakers for Fuel Economy Improvements |
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All Policy Recommendations in New Approaches on Energy and the Environment are available for complimentary download from each chapter's webpage. (Copyright © 2004 by Resources for the Future.) Use of these chapters is for personal use only. Contents may not be duplicated or retransmitted by print, electronic, or other means without written permission of the publisher. To purchase a printed copy of the book, click on the button below. |
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RFF Press Right Column
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