Link to The Wall Street Journal:
WASHINGTON—The nation’s biggest oil industry trade group has drafted a proposal urging Congress to adopt a carbon tax, which would put a surcharge on gasoline and other fossil fuels to discourage greenhouse-gas emissions.
The draft proposal was approved by the American Petroleum Institute’s climate committee last month.
A carbon tax would raise gasoline prices and other energy costs for consumers.
Some API members want to delay action on the proposal amid near-record prices at the pump, contending it could alienate not only voters but Republican lawmakers friendly to the oil industry ahead of midterm elections.
The API proposal calls for assessing gasoline wholesalers, power plants and others a tax starting at $35 to $50 a ton for carbon dioxide generated by the fossil fuel they sell or use, with annual adjustments for inflation and other factors.
Some Democrats who once supported a carbon tax now oppose it, on grounds that the costs are passed on to consumers, including many who can’t afford it. The API proposal suggests rebating some of the revenue collected by the carbon tax to households and to invest the rest of the money in new technology.
The draft proposal says a carbon tax is “the most impactful and transparent way to achieve meaningful progress on the dual goals of reducing greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions while simultaneously ensuring continued economic growth.”
Data point:
- one gallon of gasoline, non-ethanol, produces about 19 pounds of CO2 -- let's call it 20 pounds.
- currently a gallon of gasoline runs about $4.00 / gallon
- ($50 / ton CO2) (ton CO2/2,000 lbs)(20 lbs / 1 gallon) = (50*20) / 2000 = 50 cents a gallon.
- okay.
So, the conversion is easy: every $10 / ton carbon dioxide = 10 cents / gallon of gasoline.
This is nothing more than raising federal excise tax which hasn't been raised in years by 10 cents / gallon. Big deal.
The federal excise tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon, was last raised October 1, 1983, and is not indexed to inflation.
Feel free to fact-check the data points.
insanity that the fed tax has not been raised or inflation adjusted. and we wonder why infrastructure lacks funds. Raised this concern a year ago in Missouri and someone listened and increased state tax. Has to happen if we want high speed rail, etc and ween ourselves (eventually) off oil even though I produce oil, I know it is a finite resource that we will pay dearly for and most likely from hostile countries.
ReplyDeleteI agree with part of that. LOL.
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