This page, featuring Public Officials (both present and former), is one of five compiling expressions of support for putting a price on carbon by notable individuals and organizations. Use Navigation Bar at top of page to access other pages.

With his extraordinary speech in Seattle in early November, which he recapitulated a month later at the UN Framework Conference on Climate Change in Bali, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg vaults to the head of the class of public officials supporting carbon taxes. As we noted on our blog, the mayor's speech puts Bloomberg alongside former Vice-President Al Gore as the nation's leading advocate of a carbon tax to cap and reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels. Bloomberg could not have been more forceful on the need to price carbon emissions, the superiority of carbon taxes over cap-and-trade schemes, and the need for political leadership at this crucial time.

U.S. Senate

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut)

Senator Dodd anchored his presidential candidacy to a Corporate Carbon Tax. As he explained in the CNN/YouTube Democratic Presidential Candidate Debate: "Until you deal with the issue of price, until you impose a corporate carbon tax, we will never get away from fossil fuels. It’s the only way this can be achieved. You have to advocate that if you’re serious about global warming." (Transcript in the New York Times, July 24, 2007.)

Here's more from Senator Dodd's Web site:

Enact a Corporate Carbon Tax. A Corporate Carbon Tax will discourage big corporate polluters and stimulate innovation. The revenues of a corporate carbon tax—estimated at over $50 billion annually—will be placed into a Corporate Carbon Tax Trust Fund (CCTTF) to fund:

• Fast tracked research, development and deployment of renewable technologies such as wind, solar, as well as ethanol and other biofuels;
• Efforts to expedite the process for bringing energy efficient technologies to market.

In May and June, Sen. Dodd's presidential campaign ran a television ad in Iowa and New Hampshire promoteing what he called "a courageous Corporate Carbon Tax to transform American Industry." Click here to see the ad on YouTube.

In September, Dodd called former vice-president Al Gore to thank Gore for acknowledging Dodd's carbon tax advocacy.

U.S. House of Representatives

Two carbon tax bills have been introduced in Ways & Means (the U.S. House committee that originates tax legislation): Stark-McDermott, filed in April 2007, and Larson, filed in August. Click here for details.

Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA) and Congressman Jim McDermott (D-Wash)

Congressmen Stark and McDermott are the lead sponsors of the "Save Our Climate Act," which would impose a $10 per ton (of carbon) charge on coal, petroleum and natural gas when the fuel is either extracted or imported. The charge would increase by $10 every year until U.S. carbon dioxide emissions have dropped 80% from 1990 levels. Introducing the bill, Congressman Stark eloquently stated:

"The question is not if human activity is responsible for global climate change, but how the United States will respond," said Stark. "Predictable, transparent and universal, a carbon tax is a simple solution to a difficult problem. It would drastically reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by providing an economic disincentive for the use of carbon-based fossil fuels and an incentive for the development and use of cleaner alternative energies. The Save Our Climate Act would establish the United States as a global leader in environmental protection and encourage other nations – most of whom have already acknowledged the climate change threat – to take similar action to reduce emissions. I strongly encourage Congress to pass a carbon tax."

Click here for CTC's reaction to the Stark-McDermott Save Our Climate Act, and click here to read the bill itself (pdf).

Congressman John B. Larson (D-CT)

Rep. John B. Larson, a 5th-term Democratic representative from Hartford, introduced his American Energy Security Trust Fund Act in August. His bill would tax emissions of carbon dioxide at $15/ton starting in 2008, with the level increasing by 10% annually along with an additional inflation-offsetting adjustment. Since a molecule of CO₂ weighs 44/12 times as much as a carbon atom, the initial tax level in the Larson bill equates to $55 per ton of carbon. Click here for CTC's quick take on the Larson bill, and click here to read the bill itself (pdf).

Congressman John Dingell (D-MI)

Since late June 2007, Washington was buzzing with word that powerful U.S. Rep. John Dingell, chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee and dean of the Congress (he was first elected in 1954) would introduce a carbon tax bill. However, after floating a hybrid carbon tax bill in the fall that featured a national carbon fee, supplemental increases in taxes on gasoline and aviation fuel, and a reduction in the mortgage interest deduction for super-large houses, Rep. Dingell announced in April that he was taking it "off the table." In a prepared statement, the Michigan lawmaker strongly reiterated that “economists and other experts continue to inform us that a carbon tax is the most effective and efficient way at getting at the problem of global warming.” Dingell also noted that his on-line poll query, “Do you approve of the idea of a carbon tax?,” earned a "Yes" from 61% of the 2,900 respondents.

Dingell's bill would have called for a phased-in carbon tax reaching $100/ton (of carbon) in 2012, along with an additional 50 cent a gallon levy on gasoline, diesel fuel and aviation (jet) fuel, also phased in over five years. This "hybrid" bill would target both climate damage (via the carbon tax) and U.S. oil dependence (through the additional tax on major petroleum products). Click here for our assessment.

Other Current Officials

James Connaughton, Chair, President's Council on Environmental Quality

We quote from Washington Post economic columnist Sebastian Mallaby's Jan. 15, 2007 column: On Saturday I put the case for a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system to James Connaughton, the head of the Council on Environmental Quality at the White House. Far from denouncing these policies as eco-socialist nonsense, Connaughton sounded open to them. "In concept I can agree with you," he said. Something must be done to stem demand for climate-warming energy, and although there are several ways of getting there, a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system would be the most "elegant."

Former Public Officials

Former Vice-President Al Gore

The individual who has done the most to raise the world's consciousness on climate change is also an outspoken advocate for taxing carbon emissions. In a July 19, 2006 speech at Wal-Mart's Bentonville, AR headquarters, Gore said, "We should sharply reduce payroll taxes and make it all up in CO₂ taxes so the low- and middle-income people don't bear the cost burden of this big transition in energy sources." Gore spoke in the same vein two months later at NYU Law School:

For the last fourteen years, I have advocated the elimination of all payroll taxes -- including those for social security and unemployment compensation -- and the replacement of that revenue in the form of pollution taxes -- principally on CO₂. The overall level of taxation would remain exactly the same. It would be, in other words, a revenue neutral tax swap. But, instead of discouraging businesses from hiring more employees, it would discourage business from producing more pollution.

In his remarks to Congress in March, 2007, Gore said "I fully understand that this [taxing the carbon content of fuels] is considered politically impossible, but part of our challenge is to expand the limits of what is possible." Reported by Greenwire. Gore's 10 legislative recommendations, reported by Gristmill, are here.

In an interview in the Sept/Oct issue of 02138 magazine, Gore reiterated, "I’m convinced that we should eliminate the payroll tax and replace it dollar for dollar with a CO₂ tax." Gore has also publicly praised Sen. Chris Dodd's advocacy of a corporate carbon tax.

Gore voiced this theme in an historical context in a March, 2008 talk at Autodesk: "Here's the solution. We need a CO₂ tax, revenue-neutral, to replace taxation on employment, which was invented by Bismarck -- and some things have changed since the 19th Century." (This is at around the 13:30-minute mark of his talk).

Robert Shapiro, former Undersecretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs

Mr. Shapiro, Commerce Undersecretary in the Clinton Administration, authored the American Consumer Institute's superb Feb. 2007 report, Addressing the Risks of Climate Change: The Environmental Effectiveness and Economic Efficiency of Emissions Caps and Tradable Permits, Compared to Carbon Taxes. Here's an excerpt from the Executive Summary:

"Carbon taxes would be a better response to the risks of global warming than emissions caps and tradable permits (commonly referred to as cap-and-trade)... [Carbon taxes] are much less vulnerable to evasion and market manipulation, providing a more stable and transparent system for consumers and industry alike. [Carbon taxes] do not create the price volatility and administrative problems associated with cap and trade."

Click here for full report.

Paul Volcker, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve

Volcker is revered in the business and financial community for shepherding the U.S. economy out of the "stagflation" of the 1970s into the long-term boom of the 1980s and beyond, as chairman of the Federal Reserve under Presidents Carter and Reagan (1979-87). Speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, earlier this year, he stated: "[The argument that taxes on oil or carbon emissions would ruin an economy is] fundamentally false. First of all, I don't think [such a step] is going to have that much of an impact on the economy overall. Second of all, if you don't do it, you can be sure that the economy will go down the drain in the next 30 years," Volcker said. Referring to the new report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Volcker added:

What may happen to the dollar, and what may happen to growth in China or whatever pale into insignificance compared with the question of what happens to this planet over the next 30 or 40 years if no action is taken... The scientists seem pretty well agreed that [global warming] is still potentially manageable if we act decisively, beginning now into the next decade or so, by taking measures that are technically and economically feasible.

(All quotes attributed to Mr. Volcker, above, are from an article published in the International Herald Tribune on Feb. 6, 2007, US: Economist Paul Volcker Says Steps to Curb Global Warming Would Not Devastate an Economy.)

George P. Schultz, former Secretary of State

Mr. Schultz, U.S. Secretary of Labor under Pres. Nixon (1969-70), Treasury Secretary under Presidents Nixon and Ford (1972-74), and Secretary of State under Pres. Reagan (1982-89), is considered a consummate member of the Washington establishment. Following is an excerpt from his op-ed, How to Gain a Climate Consensus, in the Washington Post, Sept. 5, 2007:

The use of economic incentives (caps and trading rights, and carbon taxes) is essential to avoid disastrously high costs of control. The cap-and-trade system has been highly successful in reducing sulfur dioxide emissions by electricity utilities in the United States. That system relies on a scientifically valid and accepted emission-measurement system used by a clearly identified and homogeneous set of utilities. Fortunately, such a careful system of measurement exists for a viable greenhouse gas regimen. The product of collaboration between the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, these standards for accounting and reporting greenhouse gases should be duly understood and adopted. Even with clear units of account, however, large problems arise as the coverage and heterogeneity of the system grow. And for trading across borders, the system needs to be accepted among the trading partners. Scams are easy to imagine. No nation should be allowed to trade without a verifiable, transparent system of measuring and monitoring of reductions, and holding emitters accountable. In many respects, a straight-out carbon tax is simpler and likelier to produce the desired result. If the tax were offset by cuts elsewhere to make it revenue-neutral, acceptability would be enhanced.

Gregory Mankiw, former Chair, President's Council of Economic Advisers

Click here for links to the many pro-carbon tax articles and blog posts by President George W. Bush's chief economic adviser, 2003-2005.

Bill Bradley, former U.S. Senator from New Jersey

From Mr. Bradley's op-ed, We Can Get Out of These Ruts, in the April 1, 2007 Washington Post: "We also need to change our tax system to reduce our oil dependence. In general, we ought to reduce taxes on things we need, such as wages, and raise taxes on whatever is dangerous to us, such as pollution and resource depletion. We could implement a $1 per gallon gasoline tax; or an equivalent carbon tax ... After a few years of adjustment in the case of a gasoline or carbon tax, cars would be more fuel-efficient, so consumers would pay what they used to pay for the same amount of driving, and the broad middle class would continue to pay lower employment taxes. The result would be increasing demand for goods and services; shrinking dependency payments such as unemployment compensation and welfare; lowered social costs, such as crime and avoidable illness; and a more equitable tax system that encourages rising employment."