Rep. John Dingell is going to put a draft of his carbon tax bill on his website this Thursday, to solicit feedback. (Did I say "tax"? I meant "emissions fee.") Reportedly, this marks the first time Dingell’s done something like this.
I dunno. If he’s just introducing the tax to sabotage the rest of the climate legislation in the House, why do this? Why allow for public comment before introducing a bill if you mean the bill to fail?
Inscrutable as usual.
Regardless, when he opens it up for feedback, I’m going to head over (hopefully joined by lots of you) to say the following:
1. The tax revenue needs to be set aside in a special fund or trust — away from the grubby hands of earmark-hungry legislators — to be devoted to a) funding clean energy, and b) reducing the payroll tax to compensate the working class, which will be hardest hit at first.
2. There needs to be a mechanism in the bill to periodically take stock of the results of the tax and re-assess the level of emission reduction necessary to avoid the worst of global warming. The size of the tax should be adjusted accordingly.
I’ll remind you on Thursday.
