Should the US Enforce a Carbon Tax?

2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SITE

Last updated on: 7/23/2020 12:40:23 PM PST

According to the Tax Policy Center, "Emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are changing the climate. A carbon tax puts a price on those emissions, encouraging people, businesses, and governments to produce less of them. A carbon tax’s burden would fall most heavily on energy-intensive industries and lower-income households. Policymakers could use the resulting revenue to offset those impacts, lower individual and corporate taxes, reduce the budget deficit, invest in clean energy and climate adaptation, or for other uses."

Source: Tax Policy Center, "What Is a Carbon Tax?," taxpolicycenter.org , May 2020

Pro

Biden

Hawkins

Con

Jorgensen

Not Clear or Not Found

Trump

Pro (Yes)

Pro

Biden
Democrat

Anderson Cooper: "Would you support a carbon tax? Some other candidates say they would."

Joe Biden: "Yeah, no, I would. But here's what we have to do. Look, the bottom line of this is, what we have to do is we have to understand that you need to be able to bring people and countries and interests together to get anything done. You can have -- plans are great, but executing on those plans is a very different thing. We make up -- it's the existential threat of not this generation, but the whole world, the existential threat that exists, if we don't move on it, number one."

Source: CNN Transcripts, "Climate Crisis Town Hall with Joe Biden (D), Presidential Candidate. Aired 8-8:40p ET," transcripts.cnn.com, Sep. 4, 2019

Pro

Hawkins
Green

"Progressive Carbon Tax: Enact a progressive state carbon tax with rebates to low- and moderate-income households. The carbon tax will make polluters pay for their damages and make private investments in clean energy pay off."

Source: Howie Hawkins, " Issues: Progressive Taxation," howiehawkins.org (accessed July 20, 2020)

Con (No)

Con

Jorgensen
Libertarian

"No. I don't like the idea of a huge carbon tax, because it’s passed on in utility rates and prices – yet another tax that will burden every family and business in America. The Green New Deal is even more onerous, and should be scrapped. The solution is to stop subsidizing energy producers and allow solutions to emerge through competition."

Source: Communication from the Jorgensen campaign to ProCon.org on Sep. 8, 2020.

Not Clearly Pro or Con

Trump
Republican

[Editor's Note: A White House official stated, "The Trump Administration is not considering a carbon tax" after Trump met with Republicans calling for a $40 per ton carbon tax on Feb. 8, 2017.

Reuters, "Trump Administration Not Considering a Carbon Tax: White House Official," reuters.com, Mar. 21, 2017 ]

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