“Rhode Island Department of Health, the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) director Janet Coit met with and expressed sympathy for the pipeline protestors’ cause. Remember, this is the state that will be hosting the first offshore wind energy project that will have the highest cost electricity in the continental United States at 24.4 cents per kilowatt-hour.”
“The governors of the states seem to have awakened to the economic benefits of utilizing more clean-burning, low-cost natural gas. Let’s hope they don’t cave into the politically expedience of bowing to more high-cost renewable energy.”
New England’s just-ended abnormally cold winter sent electricity and heating demand skyward, bringing into focus the battle over expanding natural gas pipeline capacity to the region. While there are two significant proposed pipeline expansions seeking FERC approval, environmentalists have become more militant.…
Continue Reading[Editor Note: This excerpt from Dr. Cordato’s 1992 essay, “Excises, Social Costs, and the Myth of Efficient Taxation: The Case of Carbon Taxes,” (IRET Policy Bulletin), is a timeless, yet timely, refutation of the illusion of a science-based carbon tax (revenue-neutral or not). It is reprinted for the current debate with the permission of the author.]
“Politics have led to ‘calls for immediate action.’ The economics provide a pseudo-justification for such action by suggesting that if a social cost is generated, a tax is justified on economic efficiency grounds. This leads to contortions of the science such that only the scientific evidence and arguments that support the political ‘call for action’ enters into the analysis.”
A clear illustration of the myth of efficient taxation concerns recent interest in a tax on carbon-dioxide emissions.…
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