Paying for Pollution: Why a Carbon Tax Is Good for America

201 Pages·2019·6.713 MB·English

by  Gilbert Metcalf

Paying for Pollution

Paying for Pollution
Why a Carbon Tax is Good for America
Gilbert E. Metcalf
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1
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
Introduction: Why This Book? 1
1. Climate Change: What’s the Big Deal? 7
2. Business as Usual: What Are the Costs? 23
3. Why Do Economists Like a Carbon Tax? 35
4. Isn’t There a Better Way? (No, There Isn’t) 53
5. Cap and Trade: The Other Way to Price Pollution 73
6. What to Do with $200 Billion: Give It Back 87
7. So You Want a Carbon Tax: How Do You Design It? 99
8. Objections to a Carbon Tax 115
9. Enacting a Carbon Tax: How Do We Get There? 129
What Next? 141
Notes 143
References 165
Index 177

PREFACE
According to Nathanial Hawthorne, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.”
That is especially true when writing a book on a technical subject for a gen­
eral audience. In writing this book, I have deliberately avoided the math­
ematical tools and conventions that economists fall back on in academic
writing. Readers need not fear that they will see complicated equations,
derivatives, stochastic calculus, or other high­t ech tools of modern eco­
nomics. Instead, I have tried to write a book that is accessible to any person
interested in the issue of climate change and in how our government should
respond to this threat. I took this approach to reach as wide an audience
as possible in hopes of influencing debate over climate policy. At the same
time, I have provided extensive endnotes and references for readers who
want to see the research that underpins this book.1
I have carried out research on climate change policy for roughly twenty
years now. Nearly all of that work informs this book. I have benefitted
greatly from conversations with Joe Aldy, Dallas Burtraw, Kelly Sims
Gallagher, Marc Hafstead, Ted Halstead, Kevin Hassett, Captain William
Holt, USCG, Ret., Chris Knittel, Ray Kopp, Henry Lee, Billy Pizer, John
Reilly, Ricky Revesz, Rob Stavins, Jim Stock, Jerry Taylor, David Weisbach,
and Rob Williams, among many others. They cannot be held responsible
for any of the opinions I’ve expressed in this book. Those opinions are
mine alone. Richard Forman, Jeff Greene, and Michael Klein have read
drafts of this book and provided constructive suggestions for which I’m
grateful.
I wrote most of this book while on leave from the Department of
Economics at Tufts University. I spent some of that time as a visiting
scholar at the Mossavar­ Rahmani Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School
of Government. My thanks to Larry Summers for extending the invita­
tion and to John Haigh and Scott Leland for making me welcome there.