Carbon-Tax Foes Must Think the End Is Nigh

To garner support, simplify plan and focus message: Friedman

(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?” More»

'Pathetic' Waxman-Markey at least puts a price on carbon: Friedman

(NEWSER) - Waxman-Markey is a "pathetic" and "appalling" bill that totally fails to respond to the urgency of climate change—and it should be passed by the Senate and signed into law straight away, writes Thomas Friedman. For the New York Times columnist, the flawed legislation has one great virtue: it finally puts a price on carbon emissions, and "will usher in a new mind-set among consumers, investors, farmers, innovators and entrepreneurs that in time will make a big difference." More»

Demand government cash to take action

(NEWSER) - Farmers are among those facing the highest risk from global warming—storms, droughts and swarms of insect pests are coming their way—yet “true to form,” they’re not interested in backing a bill to fight it without reaping even more government cash, sputters Steven Pearlstein in the Washington Post. What he calls "the world's most selfish lobby" is opposing the House cap-and-trade bill up for a vote today, even though farms are exempted, because it might raise their fuel and fertilizer costs, and they want the government to pick up the tab. More»

(NEWSER) - The key issue behind both the global economic and climate crises is exactly the same: “mispricing risk,” Thomas L. Friedman writes in the New York Times. “We have been mispricing risk in both arenas,” he contends, “producing a huge excess of both toxic assets and toxic air that now threatens the stability of the whole planet.” Only “smart regulation and carbon taxation can heal both.” More»

3 years in the making; first of its size in the nation

(NEWSER) - While climate legislation flounders in Congress, California is taking the lead: Air regulators there voted yesterday to cap industrial greenhouse gas emissions and instate the first carbon-trading program of its size in the US, the Los Angeles Times reports. “Most political people said we should do as little as possible as slowly as possible” because of the economy, said an official. "We are being cautious and careful, but in the context of a very bold effort." More»