New Episode of Resources Radio on the Politics of Carbon Pricing
WASHINGTON, DC—Resources for the Future (RFF) today released a new installment of Resources Radio: “Can We Price Carbon?, with Barry Rabe of the University Of Michigan.”
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Professor Barry Rabe about the political feasibility of implementing carbon pricing policies. They discuss Rabe's new book, Can We Price Carbon?, which examines carbon pricing from a political science perspective. They also talk about the importance of developing a constituency for these policies, the political forces affecting carbon pricing legislation, and the Green New Deal.
Notable quotes from the podcast:
- “I think [political scientists are] beginning to formulate, not a counter to the economics literature, but hopefully a complement. Is a great idea politically feasible or not?”—Barry Rabe (12:40)
- “Developing a constituency is hugely important because those supportive leaders, those policy entrepreneurs, will inevitably leave the scene. We have elections, we have election cycles. Do we see policies where carbon price becomes a target for an opposition party to gain power and reverse that policy upon being elected? We've seen that in the US, we've seen that in Australia, we may see it very soon in Canada.”—Barry Rabe (15:09)
- “There's no amount of benefit through expenditure that can likely offset the pain for many folks from higher energy prices. But I do think that question of how you use the revenue, whether that becomes a compelling story that people get behind is an important part of this, and is often historically, outside the energy area, part of the recipe of developing long-term support for a political strategy that involves some imposition of pain through tax.”—Barry Rabe (16:20)
Resources Radio is a weekly podcast series exploring timely environmental, energy, and natural resources topics, and can be found on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
Resources for the Future (RFF) is an independent, nonprofit research institution in Washington, DC. Its mission is to improve environmental, energy, and natural resource decisions through impartial economic research and policy engagement. RFF is committed to being the most widely trusted source of research insights and policy solutions leading to a healthy environment and a thriving economy.
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