Australian election won’t deter U.S. carbon tax supporters
American carbon tax supporters are undeterred by Australian election results that were widely interpreted as a repudiation of the tax.
“We would say the Australian experiment shows precisely the wrong way to implement a carbon tax,” Ray Lehmann, spokesman for the R Street Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Simply laying a new tax on top of citizens’ existing burdens is never going to be either popular or economically productive.”
Conservatives contend that the Australian election should serve as a warning to U.S. policymakers who seek to impose such a tax on the carbon dioxide emissions at home.
“Australia is a great example of how not to do [a carbon tax]: not revenue-neutral, not coupled with regulatory and tax reform, and using a bad structure in cap-and-trade,” R Street’s Andrew Moylan said.
R Street bills itself as a group which supports “free markets; limited, effective government; and responsible environmental stewardship.” The group has been trying to muster up support for a $20 per ton carbon tax among conservatives, and contends that a carbon tax could be beneficial if coupled with regulatory and tax reform.
“I myself would certainly vote to repeal it were I an Australian MP or senator and would have voted Liberal-National were I a voter,” R Street’s president Eli Lehrer told The DCNF.
