In a new study from the Niskanen Center, its president Jerry Taylor outlines “The Conservative Case for a Carbon Tax.” Ironically, the study doesn’t spend much time explaining why a carbon tax is good, but instead rests entirely on the promise that the government will stop doing awful things if only conservatives will agree to a carbon tax. Beyond that, Taylor tries to defuse carbon tax objections that we here at IER have raised, but his defenses are inadequate. Finally, in an ironic twist, some of the conservative (and libertarian) heroes that Taylor cites, actually reject the very types of policies he recommends in the study. It’s good that Taylor published the study, because its analysis should underscore for conservatives the crushing flaws of a carbon tax, whatever his original intent.
