Dingell on the Carbon Tax
Representative Dingell’s (D – Auto Industry)Post Op-Ed puts him firmly in the Pigou Club – he comes out strongly in favor of a carbon tax. Pigou Club president Mankiw thinks it’s all a cynical ploy, because Dingell knows that the Carbon Tax isn’t popular and his ultimate goal is to avoid any piecemeal carbon legislation getting passed. This may be true, but I think now is the wrong time to be passing any type of carbon legislation, because it will inevitably be watered down by GOP filibuster and Bush’s intransigence.
Any bill Pelosi and Reid are able to pass through will probably be a collection of special interest hand outs to the Corn, Coal and Nuclear lobbies included with an easily corruptible, ineffective cap and trade system. Moreover, if we pass some sort of carbon legislation now, it will sap momentum for more a more extreme policy later – it will take a few years to implement cap and trade, a few years to figure out that it isn’t working and has been plagued by special interest driven loopholes, exceptions and enforcement issues and then a few years to move from cap and trade to a carbon tax.
If we can wait until a Democrat gets into the White House, we’ll have the momentum and majorities to get a real comprehensive carbon tax passed without going through ten years or more of cap and trade purgatory. Dingell might just get a taste of his own medicine, and we should gulp it down heartily.
