About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

65 Buff. L. Rev. 857 (2017)
A Complete Analysis of Carbon Taxation: Considering the Revenue Side

handle is hein.journals/buflr65 and id is 889 raw text is: A Complete Analysis of Carbon Taxation: Considering the Revenue Side SHI-LING Hsut ABSTRACT Climate policy in the United States always seems to face strong political headwinds. It is not so much that voters dismiss the threat of climate change, or that they believe climate change is a hoax, but coming up with a fair and effective policy has always seemed so daunting. This Article argues that the simplest answer is not, contrary to initial appearances, daunting at all. The most effective and most efficient climate policy at the federal, state, and local level is a carbon tax. Carbon taxation has always seemed politically implausible, due in large part to an inherent public aversion to taxes, but also due to a campaign of misinformation, paralleling the campaign against climate change itself. An important way of countering this bias and this campaign is to emphasize the revenue side of carbon taxation. Without a robust discussion of the uses of carbon tax revenues, the only salient part of a carbon tax to voters is the all- too-apparent cost. There is no sense of the benefits of revenues. This Article fills this gap by presenting a menu of revenue options, along with a discussion of the macroeconomic and the distributional consequences of the different options. This analysis is an input into a political process, which must ultimately decide on the objective, but only with the guidance of some quantitative analysis. This Article closes with an argument for a lump sum distribution approach, in which carbon tax proceeds are returned directly back to carbon taxpayers on a largely per-capita basis. t D'Alemberte Professor and Associate Dean for Environmental Programs, Florida State University College of Law. The author would like to thank James Handley and Gary Lucas, Jr. for their comments and help, the participants at a workshop at the University of Florida Levin College of Law at the 2016 J.B. & Maurice C. Shapiro Environmental Law Symposium and at the 2016 Vermont Law School Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship, and the always-helpful library staff at the Florida State University College of Law. The author is a member of the Advisory Board of Citizens' Climate Lobby. 857

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most