Search Results
-
Will Oregon Cook Up a Carbon Tax?
The BC recipe for carbon pricing looks something like this: Take a carbon tax and mix it with corporate and personal income tax reductions; keep it simple; slowly shift the tax burden from income to carbon pollution over time. Is Oregon the next place this dish will show up on the menu? Governor Kitzhaber is running for re-election on a platform that prominently includes tax reform. “It’s got to be...Read more » -
All You Need to Know About BC’s Carbon Tax Shift in Five Charts
Author’s note:The graphs in this post were updated in August 2015 to include the most recent available data. When British Columbia enacted a carbon tax shift in 2008, many thought other jurisdictions would follow soon with their own ways of cashing in their carbon. Seven states and four provinces were working out the details of a huge carbon cap-and-trade market called the Western Climate Initiative. Candidates Barack Obama and John...Read more » -
TransLink’s Gasoline Problem
Last Friday’s excellent Vancouver Sun story put a much needed spotlight on traffic trends on the Golden Ears Bridge—which are running so far behind projections that Translink now forecasts that the agency will lose between $35 and $45 million each year on the bridge for at least the next several years. But the story is really just the tip of iceberg in a much larger story about Greater Vancouver’s transportation finance woes....Read more » -
Talking Carbon Taxes, Free-Enterprise Style
What’s the best way to make a case for a carbon pollution tax to conservative audiences? Why not speak their language? Just listen to the outspoken conservatives who favor a tax on carbon pollution. Again and again they talk up carbon pricing with the familiar language of the market, calling for a level playing field and accountability for the true costs of energy, and touting the enormous opportunity in homegrown,...Read more » -
Recipe: Cooking the Books on Carbon Taxes
Editor’s note: This extra-rich recipe was originally shared on Yoram’s own blog at The Stand-Up Economist. Check it out! The National Association of Manufacturers just released a scathing report on carbon taxes (the full report was produced—unfortunately—with the assistance of my friends at NERA), but in reality all their analysis shows is that paying down the Federal debt is the poison pill of economic policy: as long as the economy...Read more » -
American Support for a Carbon Tax
Lots of polling shows that Americans are good and ready for somebody to do something about climate change. But when it comes to specific policy measures, attitudes aren’t always so clear cut—especially if the policy solution features the word “tax.” However, several recent surveys give insights into Americans’ current attitudes about carbon taxes. And support seems to be steady—and in some cases, quite high. Depending on how survey questions are...Read more » -
Three Things Everyone Should Know About BC’s Carbon Tax – In Pictures
If you only want to know three things about British Columbia’s carbon tax, here’s what they should be. First: BC’s carbon tax, while still young, is helping the province reduce its greenhouse gas emissions consistent with its targets. Second: BC’s carbon tax has been correlated with a GDP growth rate higher than Canada’s as a whole. (Compare the green line with the dark blue line.) Combined with the province’s emissions...Read more » -
Making BC’s Carbon Tax Even Better
Sightline is an unapologetic booster of British Columbia’s carbon tax. For good reason, other jurisdictions look to Canada’s West Coast as a model of a strong carbon policy. Yet, BC’s tax is not perfect. It’s come in for criticism from progressive groups in BC who wish the tax were fairer, stronger, and broader than it is now. Let’s take a moment to examine three major criticisms of the tax. Then...Read more » -
Deciphering the Impacts of BC’s Carbon Tax
In 2008, British Columbia rolled out the first large-scale carbon tax in North America. It is a somewhat unique tax because it is “revenue-neutral,” meaning that the government returns the revenue to taxpayers in the form of reductions in personal and corporate income taxes, along with a few other targeted tax reductions. In short, BC aims to reduce emissions by taxing harmful pollution while at the same time boosting economic...Read more » -
Carbon Tax
A carbon tax would levy a charge on the CO2 emissions from fossil fuels purchased for combustion in the state, as well as on the carbon content of electricity imported from other states. In Washington, a carbon tax of $30 per ton of CO2 would net an estimated $2.3 billion each year. The proceeds could be used to reduce taxes on families and businesses, or to provide funding for transportation,...Read more »