Republicans Acknowledge Global Warming, Propose Something To Do About It

(5/16/2009) - I've written before that, if I could design and implement a carbon controle scheme, I'd go with a cap-and-trade system that sells 100% of the permits.  However, life and Congress are not perfect, and I understand that, especially on the first go-around, global warming activists are going to have to accept something that's less than ideal if we want carbon legislation at all. 

Thus, I find it very encouraging to see two Republican lawmakers (via Andrew Sullivan), along with a Democratic counterpart, introduce a carbon tax bill that will help America reduce its dependence on carbon-based energy.  The bill would produce a $15 a ton tax on carbon in its first year, and raise it to $100 a ton over the next thirty years.  The income would then be evenly redistributed to individuals and businesses via a cut in the payroll tax (i.e. Social Security/Medicare). 

I can see many areas where I would improve the bill, including the method of distribution (I'd prefer it to be split between every man, woman, and child), and the amount of the tax (it starts off right, but probably rises too slowly). 

Despite these differences, the bill acknowledges that global warming is a problem and attempts to employ market-based incentives to curb pollution.  This is much more than I've seen from any other Republican Congressmen.  I also think that in the current political climate its more important to pass a global warming bill that follows the two principles I've put forth than to try and use carbon taxes to pay for other inititives if that effort makes climate change legislation too toxic to pass.