Free-market think tank supports ‘fee’ for reducing pollution
Right-leaning policy research group the R Street Institute said a “simple and transparent fee” is the best way to reduce pollution that affects a large number of people, running counter to some conservative lawmakers’ resistance to a tax on carbon emissions.
In a brief seven-page report, the institute took aim at the “failed 1970s” approach to protecting the environment through heavier federal regulation. The group instead said a fee was the best way to cut emissions from a large number of sources while upholding free-market values.
“Where pollution is distributed over a large number of people, a simple and transparent fee attaches personal responsibility to environmental impact, provides an incentive to reduce pollution and offers the personal freedom to choose how to avoid that fee,” R Street said.
The report added that any pollution-pricing program should be revenue-neutral, echoing suggestions from past Republican officials and presidential advisers. As an example, the institute mentioned a proposal from former President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State George Schultz to place a tax on carbon and other emissions that would later be returned to taxpayers in the form of dividends.
R Street concluded by saying that new regulations should be a “last resort” for addressing environmental issues if there is no more efficient or cost-effective way to do so.
