Law Commons^™

Designing A Better Carbon Tax: Only With Reinvestment, Stephan Sewalk

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The objective of a tax on emissions is to curtail total discharges. Ever since Rio and Kyoto, this seems to be an elusive goal. Many papers have been written on the topic, but none actually solve the dilemma of how to proactively reduce emissions. This Article seeks to solve this issue by designing a better carbon tax to reduce U.S. emissions 90% by 2050. The first step needed is to extend and explain the economics of a carbon tax with reinvestment. I examine and graphically show the economics of the tax and subsequent reinvestment of revenues into building clean power …