The Carbon Tax Center ("CTC") was launched in January 2007 to give voice to Americans who believe that taxing emissions of carbon dioxide -- the primary greenhouse gas -- is imperative to reduce global warming. Co-founders Charles Komanoff and Daniel Rosenblum bring to CTC a combined six decades of experience in economics, law, public policy and social change.
To read the latest issue of our newsletter, A Convenient Tax, please click here.
About our name
A lot of thought went into our choice of the name, Carbon Tax Center. Despite the obvious drawback -- any proposal packaged as a "tax" is flying into a stiff headwind -- we felt it was more important to openly confront the tax issue. We also knew that given that we were proposing a tax, even a revenue-neutral one, others would be more than happy to stick us with the "T word" -- and argue that we were duplicitous in trying to hide the fact.
From time to time, supporters write and impore us to change our name to de-emphasize the "tax" aspect and reframe carbon taxes as a a tax-shift or carbon-cutter or a refundable tax credit -- anything but a "carbon tax. We value these notes. We particularly appreciate the reminders to emphasize the revenue-neutral aspect of our carbon-tax advocacy. But no change of name is planned for the Carbon Tax Center.
To see why, look no further than the headline in the May 29, 2007 lead article in the New York Sun, Spitzer Open to a Deal on Traffic Tax.
The "traffic tax" in question is New York City Mayor Bloomberg's proposed congestion charge on motor vehicle trips into Manhattan's central business district.
Clearly, congestion pricing and carbon taxing emanate from the same overarching idea: that the most effective way to reduce a "negative externality" is to tax it. Of course, the mayor and his allies have gone to great lengths to frame the congestion charge as a fee, and he has also pledged to dedicate the revenues to bus and subway improvements that would benefit lower-income New Yorkers, the vast majority of whom take mass transit into the CBD. None of this has stopped opponents, and even some media supporters such as The Sun, from labeling the congestion charge as a tax. (Even the pro-congestion charge urbanist bible, Planetizen, has done so; see New Yorkers Might Not Be Ready For Congestion Tax).
We are aware that FPL Group CEO Lewis Hay III refers to the carbon tax as a "fee" and that Sen. Chris Dodd is calling for a "corporate carbon tax" in his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. We've posted statements by both Hay and Dodd on the Supporters pages of this Web site. While we welcome and support their advocacy, we still believe that no masterstroke of framing by CTC or anyone else can recast a fee on carbon emissions as anything but a tax. We intend to continue to play it straight with the American people and keep the name Carbon Tax Center.
