AP Photo
August 17, 2010
"Midterm Advice for Congress: Tax Carbon Instead of Jobs"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Robert J. Shapiro and Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
"To deal with climate change, we have to move our entire economy to low-carbon sources of energy. Tying a carbon fee to lower payroll taxes for workers on a permanent basis can not only take the sting out of what has to be done for the climate, it also can help create thousands of jobs and stimulate more innovation. The current favored approach for climate, cap-and-trade, is dying in the Senate, because its proponents can never guarantee that it won't turn into one more playground for Wall Street traders."
AP Photo
December 9, 2009
"A Carbon Tax Would Provide a Sunnier Forecast"
Op-Ed, Politico
By Robert J. Shapiro and Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
"Politically, a tax shift can help neutralize the glaring political liability of all climate programs: that they raise everyone's energy costs. Just as important, a tax-based climate program can provide stronger and more stable incentives than the Senate's cap-and-trade approach to get businesses and households to transition to low-carbon technologies and fuels. The critical aspect of using a tax shift to address climate change is that it applies a known price to carbon, so companies can figure out how much they might earn by developing climate-friendly fuels and technologies, and other businesses — along with the rest of us — can calculate how much could be saved by adopting them."
