Quartz: "Sky-High Oil Prices Are a Unique Chance to Pay for Climate Action"
RFF Fellow Daniel Raimi is quoted in this piece, which is based around his recent blog post on how states can sustainably invest revenue from high fossil fuel taxes.
“Government budgets in oil and gas states are swollen right now,” says Daniel Raimi, an energy policy researcher at think tank Resources for the Future. “These states have experienced booms and busts for decades, but as we look toward the future of reaching net zero emissions we’ll see more busts and fewer booms. There’s a window of opportunity to invest in economic diversification that can help smooth that transition.”
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No matter what, Raimi says, some money should be set aside for a future in which oil and gas states can no longer bank on booms. Alaska and Wyoming have large permanent funds fed by oil and gas revenue, but other states, including Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Ohio have either no fund or make minimal contributions to it. “Once the resource is extracted, it can’t be extracted again,” Raimi says. “It’s a one-shot deal.”
