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  carbon tax vs. cap-and-trade

  A long time ago I was advised:  tax the bad stuff (what you don't want) and incentivize the good stuff.  Don't tell people how to get there, because they might invent something better than you can imagine.

  The carbon tax, particularly as recommended by Komanoff and Rosenblum, seems like a very good way to tax the bad stuff.  Our "market" currently externalizes and legitimizes illness and death as acceptable results of production.  The carbon tax is a very simple way to begin to address the false accounting of cost that has long been intrinsic to our economy.  It is a very basic way for people to start taking responsibility for the consequences of their actions, a responsibility which is supposed to be the basis of our national morality.

  Cap-and-trade is very popular with industry, because it is open to the abuses experienced in Europe, cited by others who have responded to the Chameides and Komanoff/Rosenblum comments.  As envisioned by Komanoff and Rosenblum, a carbon tax directly and immediately addresses the economic costs of behavior which threatens our very existence, which for too long has incentivized instead of taxed.On Why carbon taxes trump cap-and-trade posted 2 years, 9 months ago 18 Responses