30. One More Time: What Is “Carbon Pricing?”
One More Time: What Is “Carbon Pricing?” The reason we bring this up is that national carbon pricing is important. It is recognized by a full spectrum of economists, conservative to liberal, as key to reducing the role of fossil fuels in our economy, and by climate policy experts as critical for cutting emissions rapidly enough to avert catastrophe. Why do economists and climate policy experts promote carbon pricing but politicians do not? We believe the answer lies with voters - voters who do not pressure their elected officials to enact carbon pricing because they aren’t sure what it is. So here is what it is, in a nutshell. Carbon pricing refers to placing a sort of “pollution fee” on fossil fuels to make their prices reflect their TRUE cost to society. If the actual effects of fossil fuels -- in health damage, in environmental damage, in damage to the atmosphere -- were priced into those fuels, consumers would respond by avoiding them and favorin...