Allies on Taxing Carbon

• Environmental Law and Policy Center
• Friends of the Earth
• Citizens Climate Lobby
• Climate Crisis Coalition
• Progressive Democrats of America
• US Climate Task Force
• Million Letter March
• Students for a Just and Stable Future
• Peaceful Uprising
• Republican Leadership Network
• Future 500
• Earth Policy Institute
• Institute for Policy Studies
• Price Carbon Campaign

Organizations That Have Raised Concerns About Cap-and-Trade with Offsets and Have Pointed to Simpler, More Direct CO2 Pricing Mechanisms

• Cap & Dividend
• Chesapeake Climate Action Network
• Taxpayers for Common Sense
• Get America Working
• 350.org
• Public Citizen

Mainstream Environmental Groups

These groups supported cap-and-trade with offsets when Congress considered climate legislation in 2007-2010.  After cap-and-trade’s third defeat in the Senate in 2010, we urge these influential groups to support more direct, transparent carbon-pricing mechanisms.

• Sierra Club
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• Union of Concerned Scientists
• Environmental Defense Fund
• Environmental Advocates of New York
• League of Conservation Voters
• Center for Climate & Energy Solutions (former Pew Center on Global Climate Change)
• The Nature Conservancy
• World Resources Institute
• See also, U.S. Climate Action Partnership, the alliance of polluters (most were promised free allowances or other subsidies in the Waxman-Markey cap/trade bill), traders and environmental groups supporting cap/trade with offsets.

Information Sources on Climate and Policy

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
  Top international scientific body, represents scientific consensus on global warming
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
  Website of Kyoto signatories
• Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
  U.S. Department of Energy’s climate-change data center
• U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Global Warming FAQs
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
  Ongoing effort (begun 2003) to craft permit rules for cap-and-trade system governing carbon emissions from electricity generation in Northeast U.S.
• National Academy of Sciences
• U.S. Energy Information Agency
• Earth Track Understanding and monitoring environmentally-harmful subsidies.

Presentations, Visuals, etc.

• Dr James Hansen Presentation on Climate Science at Wesleyan Pricing Carbon Conference, Nov. 2010
• Dr Gary Yohe Presentation on Economic Rationale for Carbon Pricing at Wesleyan Pricing Carbon Conference, Nov. 2010
• Climate Policy Debate [Komanoff/Barnes/Lashoff] at Wesleyan Pricing Carbon Conference, Nov. 2010
• Charles Komanoff debates EDF at The New School, April 2010
• Dan Rosenblum on PBS News Hour, April 2007
• An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s consciousness-raising, Oscar-winning (2006) movie
• Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change
  High-level UK report on the costs of not addressing climate change
• David Suzuki video on climate/carbon tax
• “The Story of Cap & Trade” (Animated, by Annie Leonard)
• Laurie Williams & Alan Zabel’s “Huge Mistake” video
• What’s Wrong With the Social Cost of Carbon? (Frank Ackerman, Stockholm Climate Institute, Webinar, 2010)
• Comprehensive Tax Reform and U.S. Energy Policy (Testimony of Prof. Dale Jorgenson to Sen. Finance Committee 6/13/12). Recommends environmental tax on fossil fuel as part of broad fiscal and tax reform.  

Books

Shi-Ling Hsu (Law Prof, Economist) “The Case for a Carbon Tax“

James Hansen (Climate Scientist), “Storms of My Grandchildren”

William Nordhaus (Economist) “Question of Balance”

Janet Milne (Law Professor),“The Reality of Carbon Taxes in the 21^st Century”

Lester Brown (A realistic path to a sustainable future), “Plan B 4.0”

Climate News Digests

• Environmental Health News (Climate Change page)
• EESI Climate Change News
• Daily Climate (www.dailyclimate.org)

Policy Journals & Papers

• Environmental Taxation and the Double Dividend (Lawrence Goulder, Stanford, 1994).  Seminal articulation of the dual benefits of replacing taxes on income and work with taxes to discourage pollution.
• When Can Carbon Abatement Policies Increase Welfare? The Fundamental Role of Distorted Factor Markets (Ian Parry, Roberton Williams & Lawrence Goulder, Resources for the Future, 1998). General equilibrium modeling demonstrates economic efficiency benefits of pollution taxes with revenue “recycling” to reduce marginal rates of pre-existing distortionary taxes.
• Clean Energy And Jobs: A comprehensive approach to climate change and energy policy (James P. Barrett & J. Andrew Hoerner, Economic Policy Institute, 2002).
• A Proposal for a U.S. Carbon Tax Swap (Gilbert Metcalf, Brookings, 2007).
• Caps vs Taxes (Ken Greene, Steven Hayward, Kevin Hassett, AEI, 2007).
• U.S. Federal Climate Policy and Competitiveness Concerns: The Limits and Options of International Trade Law, Joost Pauwelyn, Duke U., 2007). WTO rules permit “border tax adjustments” (import tariffs) to harmonize domestic carbon taxation.
• Smart Taxes: An Open Invitation to Join the Pigou Club (Greg Mankiw, Harvard, 2008).
• Policy Options for Reducing CO2 Emissions (Congressional Budget Office, 2008). “[T]he net benefits (benefits minus costs) of a [carbon] tax could be roughly five times greater than the net benefits of an inflexible cap.”
• CBO Director’s Blog on Carbon Tax vis-a-vis Cap and Trade (2008 Essay by Congressional Budget Office climate specialists Peter R. Orszag and Terry M. Dinan, critiquing noted academic Cass R. Sunstein’s article “Of Montreal and Kyoto: A Tale of Two Protocols”).
• CO2 Price Volatility: Consequences and Cures (Brattle Group, January 2009).
• Some Basic Economics of Extreme Climate Change (Weitzman, Harvard, 2009).
• Addressing Climate Change Without Impairing the US Economy (Robert Shapiro, US Climate Task Force, 2009).
• On The Merits of A Carbon Tax (Ted Gayer, Brookings, Testimony to Senate Env’t & Nat’l Res. Committee, 2009).
• The Design of a Carbon Tax (Gilbert Metcalf & David Weisbach, Harvard Envt’l Law Rev, 2009).
• Carbon taxation - a forgotten climate policy tool? (Global Utmaning [Sweden], 2009)
• How Climate Policy Could Address Fiscal Shortfalls (Adele Morris & Ted Gayer, Brookings, 2010).
• A Balanced Plan to Stabilize Public Debt and Promote Economic Growth (William Galston, Brookings & Maya MacGuineas, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, 2010).  Recommendations include a broad-based carbon tax with proceeds to reduce payroll taxes and for deficit reduction.
• Moving U.S. Climate Policy Forward: Are Carbon Taxes the Only Good Alternative? (Ian Parry & Roberton Williams, Resources for the Future, 2011).
• Revising the Social Cost of Carbon, (Frank Ackerman & Elizabeth Stanton, E3 Network, 2011).
• Carbon Taxes, An Opportunity for Conservatives (Irwin Stelzer, Hudson Institute, 2011).
• Fiscal Solutions: A Balanced Plan for Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth, Peterson Foundation & American Enterprise Institute, 2011). As part of comprehensive reform, recommends replacing ethanol subsidies and greenhouse gas regulations with a $26/tonne CO2 (and CO2-eq) tax, rising 5.6% annually. (p 25.)
• The Potential Role of a Carbon Tax in U.S. Fiscal Reform (Brookings, 2012)
• Offsetting a Carbon Tax’s Costs on Low-Income Households (CBO, 2012)
• Considering a U.S. Carbon Tax: Frequently Asked Questions (Resources for the Future, 2012)
• Carbon Tax Revenue and the Budget Deficit: A Win-Win-Win Solution? (MIT, August 2012)

Noteworthy Blogs and Webpages

• Grist Covers US & World eco developments with verve and a nose for news.
• Streetsblog NYC-based transport-focused blog, covers road pricing, bicycling, urban renaissance for policy wonks and activists alike.
• Climate Progress Timely, topical site run by climate policy expert (and former Clinton-era acting assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy) Joe Romm.
• William Nordhaus home page Links to papers and economic models of the world’s leading carbon-energy-economy modeler
• Robert Shapiro’s blog (Former Clinton Economist)
• Rob Stavins’ blog (cap/trade advocate)
• Greg Mankiw’s blog (Romney adviser, founder of the Pigou Club)
• George Monbiot’s blog (author of “Heat” and Guardian (UK) columnist)
• David Suzuki’s blog
• Sightline Daily (NW Environmental News & Views)
• Global Policy Forum Web page links to useful papers and articles on carbon and fuel taxes from 1997 to present.
• Holistic Politics A Conservative Case for a Carbon Tax and Various Calculations
• Earth Policy Institute (Planning a Sustainable Future)
• Dr James Hansen’s blog (Climate scientist)
• Weathervane (Resources for the Future)
• Yale 360 (Environmental Reporting, Analysis & Debate)

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