Republicans Blow Their Chance to Pass a Carbon Tax
The Republican tax-reform bill, which passed Congress Wednesday, makes some big changes to the federal government. It repeals Obamacare’s health-insurance mandate, temporarily expands the child tax credit, and permanently cuts taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans.
What it doesn’t do: impose a new tax on carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas that warms the globe and acidifies the oceans.
This might not come as a surprise, as only some GOP politicians accept that global warming—which a carbon tax is meant to slow—is real. But passage of the tax bill will end a year of prodding, cajoling, and storytelling from leaders in both parties—including sitting senators and Reagan-administration alumni—that tried to force senior Republican leadership into considering some kind of plan to soften the blow of global warming.
As the GOP passes its largest legislative package in years, with no carbon price to be found, it’s clear that those rhetorical efforts have failed. Even as wildfires and hurricanes ransack the coasts, and record-breaking temperatures stack up, there’s still little appetite among the party’s leaders to address climate change through tax policy.
By rejecting a carbon tax without proposing an alternative,
