SUPPORTIVE VOICES
“By correcting a well-known market failure, a carbon tax will send a powerful price signal that harnesses the invisible hand of the marketplace to steer economic actors towards a low-carbon future.”
Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker
Former Federal Reserve Board chairs
The Wall Street Journal, op-ed
Jan. 16, 2019
“I am convinced that conservatives and moderates, including many Democrats, can agree on a commonsense set of policies. They would be based on responsible economic principles of free-market capitalism and personal choice, not coercion. … (The carbon emissions-reduction plan in my state of Ohio) is just one example of a national climate change response that could win support from elected leaders with a broad range of political convictions. They can start with a carbon tax or a cap and trade program, which is a market-based trading system to incentivize carbon reduction. These approaches have already shown they can work.”
Former Ohio Governor John Kasich (R)
USA Today op-ed, Mar. 11, 2019
"The solution isn't complicated, it's not rocket science…Emissions aren't going to go down if the cost of fossil fuels isn't honest. Economists are very clear on this. We need a steadily increasing fee that is then distributed to the public."
Dr. James Hansen
Former NASA scientist, known as “the father of modern climate change awareness”
The Guardian, June 19, 2018
“We have held the view that a revenue-neutral carbon tax is the best option. (It) could be a workable policy framework for countries around the world. They can tailor it to their own economic conditions."
Rex Tillerson
Former U.S. Secretary of State and former CEO, ExxonMobil
Oct. 7, 2015
“What we and a number of our colleagues believe is that a better way to price the externality of carbon and create a more level playing field is to pass a comprehensive and transparent national revenue-neutral carbon tax (RNCT) that would displace much of the existing energy and environmental regulatory maze."
Thomas Stephenson
Overseer, Hoover Institution, and former ambassador under President George H. W Bush
“A More Balanced Approach to Climate Change Policy,” Hoover Institution, 2014
“If we want rules that are more effective, decide the end result we want and let technology compete for the best solution. Carbon taxes are much better than all the other choices.”
Tom Linebarger
Chief Executive, Cummins Inc.
Greg Ip column, The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 6, 2018
“To say that this issue [climate change] has sides is about as productive as saying the Earth is flat.”
President George H. W. Bush
Closing plenary session of the White House conference on science and economic research related to global change, April 19, 1990
“A federal price on carbon should be one part of a comprehensive response by the federal government to the threat of climate change. The proceeds should be paid out as a dividend in a progressive way that ensures that our climate policies are also reducing inequality and not burdening everyday families.”
Cory Booker
U.S. Senator (NJ) and Democratic candidate for president
The New York Times, April 18, 2019
“A carbon tax ...would be a great thing.”
Bill Gates
Principal founder of Microsoft
Axios, June 26, 2019
“Putting a price on emissions will create incentives to develop new, cleaner energy technologies.”
Henry M. Paulson, Jr.
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary (under George W. Bush)
The New York Times, op-ed, June 21, 2014
“Price it right. Tax it smart. Do it now.”
Christine Lagarde
Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
Second annual High-Level Assembly of Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition
April 20, 2017
“If we’ve learned any lessons during the past few decades, perhaps the most important is that preservation of our environment is not a partisan challenge; it’s common sense.”
President Ronald Reagan
Remarks on signing annual report of the Council on Environmental Quality, July 11, 1984
“The best way to curb carbon emissions is to put a price on carbon. The cap-and-trade system President Obama advocates is one way to do that. A more direct and less bureaucratic way is to tax carbon. When polled, economists overwhelmingly support the idea.”
N. Gregory Mankiw
Harvard economics professor, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (under George W. Bush)
The New York Times, op-ed, Sept. 4, 2015
“An economy-wide price on carbon is the best way to use the power of the market to achieve carbon reduction goals, in a simple, coherent and efficient manner. We desire to do this at the least cost to the economy and households. Markets will also spur innovation, and create and preserve quality jobs in a growing low-carbon economy.”
CEOs of Exelon, LaFargeHolcim, Ford, Shell, DTM, Calpine, PG&E, Unilever, Citicorp, BP, BASF (CEO Climate Dialogue)
May 2019
“Until we put a value on carbon, we’re never going to be able to get serious about dealing with climate change longer term.”
Jon Huntsman
Former Republican governor of Utah
Former U.S. Ambassador to China
U.S. Ambassador to Russia
Gubernatorial debate, Oct. 16, 2008
“A carbon fee is the way economists of all stripes say we should end the massive subsidy to the fossil fuel industry and reduce carbon pollution. Our bill would harness the power of markets to ensure carbon polluters pay for the harm of their products, and then return the revenue directly to the American people. That would mean a win for our environment, a win for our economy, and a win for American families.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Press release on introduction of The American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act
Feb. 5, 2019
“We need to impose a tax on the thing we want less of (carbon dioxide) and reduce taxes on the things we want more of (income and jobs). A carbon tax would attach the national security and environmental costs to carbon-based fuels like oil, causing the market to recognize the price of these negative externalities. [B]oth Democrats and Republicans could support a carbon tax offset by a payroll or income tax cut.”
Arthur Laffer
Member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board and father of supply-side economics
The New York Times, op-ed, Dec. 28, 2008 [co-authored with former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC)]
“I believe that technology is the vital solution to fixing the problems of climate change. Businesspeople don’t innovate because it feels good; they innovate because there’s a return to that innovation. If you want a return to that innovation, you will have to price it – you will need to put a price on carbon, which means having, either through a cap-and-trade system or an explicit tax, some incentive to innovate carbon-saving technology.”
Glenn Hubbard
Columbia University professor of finance and economics; chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (under George W. Bush)
June 26, 2007
“We need governments to provide us with clear, stable, long-term, ambitious policy frameworks… A price on carbon should be a key element of it.”
BG Group, BP, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil & Total
June 1, 2015, letter to UNFCCC
“A carbon tax is one strategy that could command support across the political spectrum if sold with a touch of the conciliatory mind-set that is crucial to democracy.”
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
Wall Street Journal columnist
Oct. 30, 2018
“A more efficient method of limiting global warming than regulatory controls such as proposed by the President (and that as described promise to be a bureaucratic nightmare) would be a tax on carbon emissions, which I advocated in my 2005 book and which a number of countries have adopted.”
Richard Posner
Senior lecturer, University of Chicago, and former U.S. Appeals Court judge
The Becker-Posner Blog
July 7, 2013
“A carbon tax, starting small and escalating to a significant level on a legislated schedule, would do the trick. I would make it revenue-neutral, returning all net funds generated to the taxpayers so that no fiscal drag results and the revenue would not be available for politicians to spend on pet projects.”
George P. Shultz
Former U.S. Secretary of State (under Ronald Reagan)
The Washington Post, op-ed
March 13, 2015
“Price carbon to save the planet if that pleases you; price carbon to permit growth-enhancing reforms to our tax code if that pleases you; price carbon both to save the planet and to reform the tax structure, if that is your pleasure. But price it.”
Irwin Stelzer
Senior fellow and director of the Hudson Institute’s Economic Policy Studies Group
Hudson Institute website
May 7, 2015
“DSM North America has long recognized that pricing carbon and strengthening the economy are not mutually exclusive. That is why we adopted our own internal price on carbon to help us do our part to tackle climate change. However, we can’t do it alone. We also need Congress to pass comprehensive climate legislation that includes a strong price on carbon—which we understand to be the best way to help businesses both reduce our carbon footprint and spur continued economic growth.”
Hugh Welsh
General counsel and president of DSM North America
May 22, 2019
“Climate change is a global issue that requires a global solution. The Mining Association of Canada and its members offer the following principles for consideration: 1) Establish a broad-based carbon price. 2) Apply any climate change policy-related revenues to manage the transition toward a lower carbon future, including climate adaptation…”
The Mining Association of Canada
Series of Principles
April 13, 2016
“We’re going to have to have a carbon tax…. And, by the way, there are ways to do it that most Americans would be better off fiscally, because we could return it right back to the American people, but in so doing would help capture the true cost of things that are happening right now, because it’s in your and my lifetime that that cost is going to be paid one way or the other.”
Pete Buttigieg
Mayor, South Bend, Indiana, and Democratic candidate for president
The New York Times, April 16, 2019
“I’m proud to be a cosponsor of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, which establishes a steadily increasing carbon fee to cut carbon emissions and return the revenue to the American people. This important and practical bipartisan legislation will grow our economy and address climate change.”
Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA)
Press release
Jan. 24, 2019