We should replace China tariffs with carbon tariffs

There's a really good op-ed in the New York Times today co-authored by one of my favorite climate economists, Gernot Wagner on a topic I've recently been thinking about too. All these steep tariffs the Biden administration is putting on clean technologies coming from China will protect American industries, but they'll also slow adoption in the US. A much better approach would be to just put a tariff on the extra carbon content of imports! As Wagner and his colleague Conor Walsh put it,

The Biden administration is right that climate policies must work for the people of Detroit and Pittsburgh as much as they work for well-off Tesla drivers. But to accomplish these goals, it ought to be taxing China for its soaring carbon emissions, not for its electric vehicles and solar panels, which for now, at least, the United States needs badly. Given China’s soaring carbon emissions, carbon tariffs will be tough on the country, but for the right reasons.

2 Replies
Mark Tabbert
328 Posts

@Dana Nuccitelli

We sent this to our two Reps and both Senators, touting America's clean energy advantage
 

Beki Thomson
211 Posts

@Mark Tabbert
I copied you. 

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