Yes, carbon taxes are politically toxic, but we'll stay vigilant because you can never underestimate the inability of politicians to pay attention to the voters.
E&E News (2/27/20) reports: "It failed in 2010. Supporters abandoned it in 2016. And now it's being passed over for shiny newcomers endorsed by celebrity lawmakers. That's the state of carbon pricing. The political landscape around climate policy is being shaken by aggressive activism, a record number of coal plant closures and a retreat from what's seen by many as the retro carbon plans of the last decade...Robert Stavins, who directs the environmental economics program at the Harvard Kennedy School, said it isn't surprising that carbon taxes aren't a staple of candidate stump speeches now, because enactment is politically infeasible. 'Politicians love to pass out benefits,' Stavins said. 'They hate passing out costs. So if you talk about innovation and you talk about clean energy standards and you talk about CAFE standards, even if they impose costs, which they do, that's a lot safer than talking about a carbon-pricing scheme that is so explicitly involving a cost.' Polls routinely show voters support the federal government clamping down on 'pollution' linked to climate change — but voters are also reluctant to pay personally to avoid the problem."
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"The whole issue about EVs, electric vehicles, we're not going to command that consumers have to address them...We really think that the free market works, the private sector works, and we need to let the consumer decide"
– Elaine Chao,
Transportation Secretary
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