Less than a year ago, the House voted to denounce carbon taxes. Now, it’s discussing a carbon pricing plan supported by some Republican Party luminaries.
Marianne Lavelle reports for Inside Climate News
A coalition of business and environmental groups, working with the support of some major oil companies, took a carbon pricing plan to the U.S. House’s main tax-writing committee on Wednesday. It was the Ways and Means Committee’s first climate-related hearing in a dozen years, and members of both parties treated the topic with kid gloves.
For the panel to be talking at all about climate change is momentous—it signals that carbon taxing has moved into the realm of the possible. But members were cautious to avoid endorsing any specific idea.
The Democrats, now in control of the House, weren’t there to back any particular legislative plan, but they called the group to make its pitch as part of an effort to explore “the economic and health consequences of climate change.” Committee Republicans, meanwhile, sought to convey serious concern about the costs of global warming, even though they opposed any solution that included a tax.
“Our plan is not a carbon tax. It is a dividend,” said Ted Halstead, chairman, and CEO of the Climate Leadership Council, a group whose members include BP, Exxon, and ConocoPhillips, as well as The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Federation and World Resources Institute.
Halstead called the proposal a “grand bargain” for the companies, in which they accept an escalating fee on the carbon emissions they produce in exchange for a rollback of regulations on greenhouse gases.
The plan, developed by GOP luminaries including former Secretaries of State James Baker and George Shultz, would return all revenue to U.S. households in the form of dividends. The quarterly payments, which the group estimates would amount to $2,000 a year for a family of four, would outstrip the increased cost of energy for the vast majority of households.
“I think there is a unified voice coming from corporate America, which is that a price on carbon is the most cost-effective solution,” Halstead said. “There are two approaches to solve climate change—you can regulate or you can price carbon. The members of our coalition, including the fossil fuel members, by joining our effort are saying they would prefer a high price on carbon in exchange for regulatory certainty.”
Persuading members of the House Ways and Means Committee will be crucial for any carbon pricing initiative since any congressional bill that raises revenue has to start here.
