Climate Finance
Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and party elders are pushing a “conservative climate solution.”
In return for a $40 per ton tax on carbon dioxide, the plan would scrap the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan and protect fossil fuel companies against any lawsuits for damage to the environment.
Baker was set to meet on Wednesday with Vice President Pence, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and others.
Secretary of State and former CEO of ExxonMobil Rex Tillerson is on record supporting a carbon tax. Mitt Romney tweeted: “Thought-provoking plan from highly respected conservatives to both strengthen the economy & confront climate risks.”
Democrats and environmental activists have long favored such a tax and more than 20 countries around the world already have enacted a variation.
At $40 a ton, the proposed tax would generate up to $300 billion a year that would then be returned to customers as a “carbon dividend.”
