Canada and the European Union now tax carbon emissions. The United States should do likewise. A carbon tax would make the cost we pay for energy include the environmental cost of using carbon fuels. A carbon tax need not increase the overall tax burden because other taxes could be reduced or the revenue from the carbon taxes could be returned to the American people in the form of a monthly dividend. The tax could be applied at the source: the well, mine or port of entry.
Jobs created by the renewable energy industry have made up for the jobs lost in the coal industry. In its 2022 report the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, pegged Utah’s solar industry employment at 7,310 workers. The U.S. Energy Administration says in Utah in 2022 there were 1,371 employees employed in the coal industry. There are now five times as many people in Utah employed in solar energy as coal.
Mitt Romney supports a carbon tax. He suggests that some of the revenues collected from the carbon tax be used to help people in the coal industry transition to other jobs. I hope whoever replaces Romney in the Senate will be concerned about climate change like he is.
Russell Patterson, West Valley City