Friedman to Obama: efficiency incentives and mandates are not enough– we need a carbon tax
President-elect Obama, in an interview conducted earlier this week and aired Sunday on Meet the Press, indicated that while he supports a transformation in our energy and environmental policies, he wants to accomplish this through incentives, rather than a carbon tax.
Tom Friedman, in effect, responds to that position in his op-ed in Sunday’s NYT.
Laying out the enormous importance of how the billions from bailouts and stimulus packages are spent, Friedman quotes Andy Karsner, a former assistant secretary of energy: “Remember, this money will not be neutral. We are talking about directing an unprecedented volume of cash at our housing, energy, transportation and infrastructure industries. This cash will either fortify the incumbent players and calcify the energy status quo, or it will facilitate the economic transformation we seek. The stimulus will either be white blood cells that will heal us or malignant cells that will continue to sap our strength.” [emphasis added]
Similar to our mantra on this site, Karsner (and Friedman) are basically saying that our country has been operating under an unsustainable status quo for a long time, and the billions and billions of dollars that we are about to spend will either act to cement that untenable situation, or transform it into something healthy and viable.
Friedman argues that if we’re to have the latter, Obama needs to change his position on how we encourage change:
“It makes no sense to spend money on green infrastructure – or a bailout of Detroit aimed at stimulating production of more fuel-efficient cars – if it is not combined with a tax on carbon that would actually change consumer buying behavior.
“Many people will tell Mr. Obama that taxing carbon or gasoline now is a “nonstarter.” Wrong. It is the only starter. It is the game-changer. If you want to know where postponing it has gotten us, visit Detroit. No carbon tax or increased gasoline tax meant that every time the price of gasoline went down to $1 or $2 a gallon, consumers went back to buying gas guzzlers. And Detroit just fed their addictions – so it never committed to a real energy-efficiency retooling of its fleet.”
Of course, Obama has made it clear that he has a solid understanding of this panic followed by complacency (or “shock and trance”) cycle that America has followed for the past forty years of oil and energy policy.
But Friedman isn’t convinced that an understanding of the problem is enough:
“The Obama presidency will be shaped in many ways by how it spends this stimulus. I am sure he will articulate the right goals. But if the means – the price signals, conditions and standards – that he imposes on his stimulus are not as creative, bold and tough as his goals, it will all be for naught.”
- Similar Posts:
- America Enters the ‘Trance’ Phase of ‘Shock and Trance’
- Obama supports massive public works program, could include $100 billion for green-collar jobs
- The Obama stimulus package must effect change, not calcify the past
Comments
Please contribute to the discussion by leaving a comment below. No need to agree with the post or other commenters, but please be constructive and respectful.
