The case for a carbon tax

How big is your carbon footprint? Do you really know? If it was taxed, you’d find out one way or another.

Think of it like a sales tax — a carbon tax could automatically apply to whatever you buy, but vary according to the environmental impact. Or maybe the producer gets hit with additional taxes and passes the cost on to you. Either way, you’ll learn something.

“That is perhaps one of the most valuable things about a carbon tax, it’s information,” said Shi-Ling Hsu, economist and the D’Alemberte professor at Florida State University College of Law. “Supply and demand being what it is, if you could get the price of the harm into the market, we’re going to have less of it.”

It’s an idea some Democrats have been kicking around (that photo above is Sen. Joe Manchin reacting to a question about it), and so has the European Union. The United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, starts this weekend in Glasgow. If you pay attention to this kind of thing at all, you’re going to hear a lot about going carbon neutral or carbon negative, carbon offsets and “global net zero.” On today’s show, we’re going to take a step back and explain the carbon tax.

We’ll talk with Hsu, who wrote “The Case for a Carbon Tax,” all about using the free market to fight the climate crisis. We’ll talk about how a carbon tax is calculated, the roadblocks it could face and why it would have to be global to really make a difference.

Later in the show, we’ll talk Disneyland prices and more on the Facebook Papers. Plus, we’ll hear from a crafty listener and another who changed the way she thought about money.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• “The 5 most important questions about carbon taxes, answered” from Vox
• A nifty map of existing carbon pricing programs around the world
• “The world needs to cut its emissions seven times as fast to hit climate goals, U.N. report finds” from The Washington Post
• “Disneyland ticket prices rise as much as 8%; parking up 20%” from the Los Angeles Times
• “Hey, Kid, Wanna See Some Leaked Facebook Docs?” from Gizmodo
• “Biden names Jessica Rosenworcel as first female FCC chair” from The Washington Post
• Molly’s interview with Rosenworcel on “Marketplace Tech“

Read the transcript here.

Finally: We need your voice memos! Tell us what you think of the show or ask a question for Kai Ryssdal and Molly Wood to answer! Here’s how to do it.

Stories You Might Like

Why the U.S. doesn’t have a carbon tax

Blaming the Fed

How do companies make money from selling stock?

Biden sees net zero emissions in our future, but the plan relies partly on magic

Two-bedroom rentals are out of range for low-wage workers across the U.S.

Is BBB in danger of becoming DOA? Here’s a look at the bill’s elements in question.