The Monitor on a carbon tax
They'd rather see a carbon tax than a cap and trade system:
Economists agree that the real cost of burning fossil fuels – damage to the environment and health, not to mention the cost of replacing them as they run out – isn't reflected in today's prices. A carbon tax would directly send a market signal to reduce carbon use. And it would provide an incentive for investment in renewable sources, especially if the tax is set at the source: for natural gas, at the wellhead; for coal, at the mine entrance. Oil would be charged at the refinery because petroleum products create different levels of emissions when burned.The World Resources Institute calculates that a tax of $15 per ton of carbon-dioxide emissions would double the costs for coal use and raise gasoline prices about 13 cents a gallon (or about 5 percent, at today's prices). Natural-gas prices would rise less than 7 percent. That would result in a 12 percent reduction in CO2 emissions.
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With Europe's cap-and-trade system faltering, the US should be a leader in using a carbon tax, even if big polluters such as China don't follow. As a last resort, the US could tax goods from countries that fail to cut their carbon emissions.
In this Monitor View, they explain why they don't like "cap-and-trade scheme[s]." Of course, I'll take a cap and trade bill over nothing. But I'd rather see a carbon tax instead.
