A Free-Market Energy Blog

Democrats and a Carbon Tax: A Losing Issue Then, Now

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 11, 2019

“We have done extensive polling on a carbon tax. It all sucks.”

– John Podesta (Clinton campaign manager), January 2015.

“[A carbon tax is] lethal in the general [election], so I don’t want to support one.”

– Robby Mook (Clinton campaign manager), June 2015.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign would not touch it. Neither would be Democratic Platform in 2016. “[Hillary] Clinton has no intention of being suckered into a political disaster by advocating a carbon tax,” stated Democrat consultant
Paul Bledsoe in July 2016.

If Republicans will come out for it and vote for it, that’s a different matter. But until that happens, the Democrats should have nothing to do with it, because it’s political poison.” –

So if attention-hungry, anti-Trump Republicans (such as Mitt Romney) want to make a carbon tax an issue, be careful.

That was the message sent yesterday by more than 75 conservative, libertarian, and classical liberal groups to Congress. The short-and-sweet letter stated:

Dear Members of Congress,

We oppose any carbon tax. A carbon tax raises the cost of heating your home in the winter and cooling your home in the summer. It raises the cost of filling your car. A carbon tax increases the cost of everything Americans buy and lowers Americans’ effective take home pay. A carbon tax increases the power, cost, and intrusiveness of the government in our lives.

Sincerely,

Grover Norquist
President, Americans for Tax Reform

James L. Martin, Founder/Chairman
Saulius “Saul” Anuzis, President
60 Plus Association

John Droz Jr.
Physicist and Founder, Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED)

Marty Connors
Chair, Alabama Center Right Coalition

Mead Treadwell
Former Lt. Governor, State of Alaska
Chair, Alaska Center-Right Meeting

Dick Patten
President, American Business Defense Council

Phil Kerpen
President, American Commitment

Thomas Pyle
President, American Energy Alliance

Brent Wm. Gardner
Chief Government Affairs Officer, Americans for Prosperity

Lisa B. Nelson
CEO, ALEC Action

Ted Tripp
Sr. Political Reporter, The Boston Broadside
Center-Right Leader, Massachusetts

Hayden Ludwig
Investigative Researcher, Capital Research Center

David T. Stevenson
Policy Director, Caesar Rodney Institute (Delaware)

Norm Singleton
Campaign for Liberty

Garrett Ballengee
Executive Director, Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy

Matthew Kandrach
President, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy

Ryan Ellis
Center for a Free Economy

Andrew F. Quinlan
President, Center for Freedom and Prosperity

Craig D. Idso, Ph.D.
Chairman, Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change

Olivia Grady
Senior Fellow, Center for Worker Freedom

Isaac Orr
Policy Fellow, Center of the American Experiment (Minnesota)

Tom Schatz
President, Citizens Against Government Waste

Chuck Muth
President, Citizen Outreach (Nevada)

David McIntosh
President, Club for Growth

Craig Rucker
President, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow

Gordon Tomb
Sr. Fellow, Commonwealth Foundation (Pennsylvania)

Myron Ebell
Director, Center for Energy and Environment, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Katie McAuliffe
Executive Director, Digital Liberty

Robert Roper
President, Ethan Allen Institute (Vermont)

Mandy Gunasekara
Founder, Energy 45

Matt Patterson
Executive Director, Free California

Annette Meeks
CEO, Freedom Foundation of Minnesota

George Landrith
President, Frontiers of Freedom

Adam Brandon
President, FreedomWorks

Victor Riches
President & CEO, Goldwater Institute (Arizona)

Rodolfo E. Milani
Trustee, HACER.org
Founder, Miami Freedom Forum

Aaron Stover
Director of Federal Government/Corporate Relations, The Heartland Institute

Mario H. Lopez
President, Hispanic Leadership Fund

Jon Coupal
President, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (California)

Amy Oliver Cooke
Executive Vice President, Independence Institute (Colorado)

Carrie Lukas
President, Independent Women’s Forum

Heather R. Higgins
CEO, Independent Women’s Voice

Chris Ingstad
President, Iowans for Tax Relief

Becky Norton Dunlop
Assistant Secretary of the Interior (88-89)

Sal Nuzzo
Vice President of Policy, James Madison Institute (Florida)

Brett Healy
President, The John K. MacIver Institute (Wisconsin)

Becki Gray
Senior Vice President, John Locke Foundation (North Carolina)

Dave Trabert
President, Kansas Policy Institute

Daniel Garza
President, The Libre Initiative

Hon. Mary Adams
Chair, Maine Center-Right Coalition

Heather Sirocki
Outreach Specialist, Maine First Project

Dr. Jameson Taylor
Mississippi Center for Public Policy

Brent Mead
CEO, Montana Policy Institute

Tim Jones
Chair, Missouri Center-Right Coalition
Former Speaker, Missouri House of Representatives

Deroy Murdock
Contributing Editor, National Review Online

Steven Stepanek
Former Chairman, New Hampshire Ways and Means Committee
Co-Chair, New Hampshire Center-Right Meeting

William O’Brien
Former Speaker, New Hampshire House of Representatives
Co-Chair, New Hampshire Center-Right Meeting

David Miller
Chair, Southwest Ohio Center Right

Representative Niraj J. Antani
The Ohio House of Representatives

Douglas Kellogg
Executive Director, Ohioans for Tax Reform

Jeff Kropf
President, Oregon Capitol Watch Foundation

Wayne Winegarden, Ph.D.
Sr. Fellow, Business & Economics, Pacific Research Institute (California)

Daniel Erspamer
President, Pelican Institute for Public Policy (Louisiana)

Lorenzo Montanari
Executive Director, Property Rights Alliance

Derrick Hollie
President, Reaching America

Mike Stenhouse
CEO, Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity

Paul Gessing
President, Rio Grande Foundation (New Mexico)

Bette Grande
CEO, Roughrider Policy Center (North Dakota)

Ralph Benko
Editor, Supply-Side Blog
Founder, The Prosperity Caucus

Hon. Paula G. Sutton
Former State Representative, Maine House of Representatives

Rick Watson
Chair, Tallahassee-Florida Center-Right Coalition

Jason Williams
Executive Director and Founder, Taxpayer Association of Oregon

David Williams
President, Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Judson Phillips
Founder, Tea Party Nation

Hon. Jason Isaac
Senior Manager and Distinguished Fellow of Life, 
Texas Public Policy Foundation

Christian N. Braunlich
President, Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy (Virginia)

Brian G. Valentine
Associate Professor of Engineering, University of Maryland

https://thinkprogress.org/clinton-team-carbon-tax-e00212ba782/

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