A recent story from Seattle showcases the absurdity of the attempt by a few vocal intellectuals to convince U.S. conservatives that a revenue-neutral carbon tax is on the table. Academic economists can continue to discuss the wonders of a large carbon tax in which all revenues are used to reduce corporate tax rates—though even in theory, this is a knife-edge result, as I’ve explained before—but in the real world, an American carbon tax will go down as a huge net tax increase.