An Inconvenient Tax

It's basic economics that the price of goods and services should reflect (or “internalize”) all the societal costs of those goods and services. Yet the price of many products -- including electricity, gasoline and other fossil fuels -- frequently does not include all costs, particularly those related to global warming. This is not suprising given that most of us had no idea that there was any external “cost” to greenhouse gas emissions until the late 80's.

One proposal often floated to “internalize” the costs of greenhouse gases is a carbon tax, but because of American’s great aversion to taxes, the proposal is usually discarded even before it is considered. Now comes the Carbon Tax Center -- a much needed forum for discussion about carbon taxes.

In addition to providing reports and information about a carbon tax, the Center will “provide intellectual and practical support, as well as a sense of community, to help carbon tax proponents . . . across the political spectrum coalesce into an irresistible civic force."

The Center is founded by Dan Rosenblum and Charles Komanoff, who bring a combined six decades of experience in economics, law, public policy and social change. It includes a blog, a monthly newsletter (titled "An Inconvenient Tax"), and compares a carbon tax with cap-and-trade solutions. They also provide an excellent slideshow concerning the carbon tax: