Conservatives For A Carbon Tax?

President Obama chalked up impressive “wins” in his first term: stimulus bills, financial-services regulation (Dodd-Frank), and, of course, Obamacare. But he didn’t get everything he wanted. His cap-and-trade proposal was handily defeated once it was exposed as an enormous energy tax.

That setback hasn’t ended the president’s war on conventional energy sources, however. Recognizing that cap-and-trade is now a damaged brand, he is moving full speed ahead with EPA regulations to address global warming. Meanwhile, his allies in Congress have turned to pushing a carbon tax. Unfortunately, some members of the center-right coalition that defeated cap-and-trade are expressing interest in the concept.

Senators Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) and Bernard Sanders (I., Vt.) have introduced the first major carbon-tax bill — not as a substitute for the EPA regulations, but as an addition to the agency’s command-and-control approach.

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