U.S. Carbon Tax Would Need Rebate To Shield Poor Families, Report Says

摘要

A federal tax on carbon pollution still remains the most economically efficient way to cut carbon dioxide emissions, but the tax would need to be offset with rebates to the poor to shield them from being pushed deeper into poverty, the group Resources for the Future said in a Sept. 21 report. There is minimal congressional appetite for carbon taxes in the Republican-led Congress after the 2010 collapse of cap-and-trade legislation derided by opponents as a "cap-and-tax" bill. But many economists argue that the simplicity of a carbon tax is preferable to more complex climate policies such as emissions trading, particularly if Congress were to offset the new tax with cuts in existing federal income or corporate income taxes.