Money Crashers: Carbon Taxes Explained

Back in January, I told you about the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 763), a bill that aims to fix one of the biggest problems with greenhouse gas emissions: the people doing the emitting aren't the people paying the price. This bill fixes that not by regulating carbon emissions, but simply by raising their cost, so people have an incentive to cut them on their own — using whatever methods work best for them. And all the money it raises goes directly back into taxpayers' pockets, offsetting the increased cost of energy. For the average taxpayer, the money from the carbon dividend would end up being more than they'd pay in higher energy bills — so it fights climate change and puts money in your pocket at the same time. Who could resist that?

What I didn't tell you at the time was how I came to learn about this bill. I became involved with the  the Citizens' Climate Lobby (CCL) in January after having written a piece on carbon taxes for Money Crashers. I've since updated the piece to cover H.R. 763, and it's now gone live on the site.

The article goes into details about:

• How carbon taxes work
• How they compare to other methods of regulating carbon emissions, such as cap and trade
• How they're working out for countries and states that currently have them
• Their advantages and disadvantages, and how to mitigate the disadvantages
• Current climate tax proposals in the House and Senate, and their chances for passage
• What you can do, if you're sold on the idea, to make a carbon tax a reality

In short, it's everything you ever wanted to know about carbon taxes but didn't know whom to ask. Read about it, and join the fight! Go Pigouvians!

Carbon (CO2) Emissions Tax Explained – Pros & Cons, Alternatives