A very interesting article. I was already convinced that a carbon tax has
compelling advantages, and this article effectively compares this option to
the cap-and-trade alternative being considered.
The one issue that seems to me to be the sticking point for any effective
action to curb carbon emissions is the argument that taking action here
without others doing so puts us at a competitive disadvantage that will
cost us jobs and eventually lead to our economic demise. The need to deal
with others gaining market share and subverting the efforts of
participating nations to reduce emissions seems crucial to me. The article
suggests doing that with border tax adjustments, essentially tariffs
imposed to compensate for the environmental subsidy of non-participating
nations. There are potential obstacles in trade law. It should be obvious
that these should be dealt with in any international treaties committing us
and others to a carbon tax or other scheme to reduce emissions so that
participating countries are explicitly given the authority to impose import
duties on non-participating countries. I would suggest that calculating
item-specific duties that would take into account the magnitude of the
subsidy would be administratively burdensome. Instead, a simple duty could
be levied based on the maximum subsidy likely to be present in goods and
services from the non-participating countries. The fact that taxing at that
level would result in overtaxing many products would serve as additional
incentive for the non-participants to join the family of participating
nations.
Some will no doubt argue that a tariff or duty to help assure participation
in a global carbon tax will inhibit trade. Compared to no carbon tax and no
duty, that is no doubt true, but if we are ever to take effective
collective action to address climate change, we need to put in place a
system that rewards the virtuous and penalizes the miscreants.
We can't afford to allow the environment to subsidize the industrialization
of the emerging nations. While it is tempting to argue that we did it and
it is now their turn, the globe will not withstand that scenario. We
shouldn't have done it but did and got away with it; a repetition would be
disastrous for all of us.
Joel
At 09:18 PM 7/22/09 -0400, you wrote:
An article Sylvester submitted several months ago has finally been
published on the online magazine Earthzine
Jeanne
>From Sylvester
Breakthrough article on carbon tax
The effort that has been made by the City and Town of Ithaca and the
County of Tompkins to support the enactment of federal tax on fossil fuel
usage
is getting national recognition. The article "Politically Possible Tax for
Reduction of Fossil Fuel Usage in the U.S. and Worldwide" has been
published in Earthzine.org, on the OpEd page at
_http://www.earthzine.org/2009/07/20/politically-possible-tax-for-reduction-of-fossil-fuel-usage-in-the-us-and-wo
rldwide/_
(http://www.earthzine.org/2009/07/20/politically-possible-tax-for-reduction-of-fossil-fuel-usage-in-the-us-and-worldwide/)
. This publication
of IEEE, "the world's leading professional association for the advancement
of technology", is widely read among leaders in the environmental field.
Because the article speaks common sense truth to political power, the
article will probably prove controversial. In order that the publishers are
encouraged to maintain it online, please check it out. If you find points
that
you agree with, please enter a comment below the article.=
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_______________________________________________
For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please
visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/
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[email protected]
http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins
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