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Obama's Energy Policy Needs a Tuneup

To garner support, simplify plan and focus message: Friedman

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Apr 8, 2009 9:43 AM CDT

(Newser) – Proponents of cap-and-trade, the climate policy Democrats are currently championing, argue that it “'hides the ball'—it doesn’t use the word 'tax'—even though it amounts to one," writes Thomas Friedman in the New York Times. There’s just one problem: “Opponents are not playing hide the ball anymore.” They’re calling cap-and-trade a tax and, worse, a Wall Street scheme. “So why not go for the real thing—a simple, transparent, economy-wide carbon tax?”

“Simplicity matters,” Friedman argues. Americans will be OK with a tax they understand. “They are much less likely to support a firm in London trading offsets from an electric bill in Boston to help fund an aluminum smelter in Beijing.” Make Americans understand that this is about the economy and national security, and they’ll get behind a carbon tax. “Let’s stop hiding the ball,” he says, “and tell it like it is.”

Smoke drifts away from a Shell Oil refinery April 1, 2004 in Martinez, California.
Smoke drifts away from a Shell Oil refinery April 1, 2004 in Martinez, California.   (Getty Images)
No one understands cap and trade, so why do it?
No one understands cap and trade, so why do it?   (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Smoke stacks from the NRG power plant located just outside of Jewett, Texas tower over Texas Highway 39, Nov. 28, 2007.
Smoke stacks from the NRG power plant located just outside of Jewett, Texas tower over Texas Highway 39, Nov. 28, 2007.   (AP Photo/Nick Simonite)
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COMMENTS
Showing 2 of 2 comments
northeast
Apr 8, 2009 6:12 AM CDT
Convert the (dubiously constitutional) income tax into a carbon tax / sales tax / estate tax? Heresy!
freethemall
Apr 8, 2009 3:53 AM CDT
The sad truth is that the powers that be, those who have a vested interest in the status quo, will fight, tooth and toenail, against any energy policy that meaningfully address the vital need to switch to an energy base that addresses the twin problems of global warming and over reliance on foreign energy sources.

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