Toward GOP Action on Climate Change

Rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline and other PR efforts by the White House and its allies have deepened the hole Democrats find themselves in leading up to the Paris climate meetings and the 2016 elections.

While it is understandable that Republicans have no desire to help out their opposition they should, however, be looking for ways to climb out of their own pit when it comes to climate change. As they fumble around with protest votes and symbolic gestures, Congressional Republicans should instead take this opportunity to actually lead on climate instead of following the President’s model of virtuous talk and ruinous solutions. Therefore in the next few weeks they should seek to pass a climate action plan that will, unlike the President’s, be both functional and legal.

Some suggested words and measures:

There is a broad consensus in the scientific community that the climate is changing, and that the release of greenhouse gas emissions from the consumption of fossil fuels is the largest contributing factor. Some have sought to use this situation to further a variety of long-standing policy desires, all of which involve greater government control over individuals’ personal choices and freedoms.

We have opposed these measures because they violate our principles; because while the science is clear on contributing factors to climate change it is less clear on the implications with possible outcomes ranging from the benign to the devastating; and because they simply just won’t work.

It is impossible to know where our path will take us but it would be irresponsible to ignore plausible dangers. For too long we have allowed the good fight against bad policies to delay us from taking reasonable actions to address this issue. That is why today we are proposing a revenue-neutral carbon tax to begin in 2018 which will start at $20 a ton and increase 10% annually until reaching a global social cost of carbon as determined by a panel of scientific and economic experts appointed by Congress.

A portion of the tax, not to exceed 50%, will be used to replace current federal excise taxes used to fund our infrastructure, with the remainder being returned to the public via an income tax credit. This rebate will be proportionally adjusted for the first five years based on historical state per-capita greenhouse gas emissions as not to unfairly impact residents living in states without natural or policy advantages. Adjustments will then be phased out gradually until at the end of ten years all individuals will get the same rebate.

As to not disadvantage American businesses, a customs duty equal to this new tax on the American economy will be applied to all goods and services imported into the United States from countries which do not have a carbon tax equivalent to our own. As the world’s largest market this will provide a global, market-based, incentive for other countries to address their own carbon emissions. Revenue raise from this duty will be fully rebated without adjustment.

These actions, not meaningless pledges, will establish true American leadership on climate change. In addition we need to provide regulatory certainty for businesses and individuals. As part of our proposal we will make clear that the Clean Air Act was never intended to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The President has admitted that the clean power plant rule was “hatched” by the White House, thus setting up years of wrangling in the courts which will leave lawyers richer and the rest of us poorer. It is time to end this before the full cost of this action kicks in.

Support for a carbon tax has in the past been bipartisan, as has been opposition to EPA overreach. The public wants us to work together for positive solutions, and that is what we are proposing here today.