Taxing Carbon Won’t Help the Economy

Institute for Energy Research senior economist Dr. Robert Murphy published a piece today on National Review Online that debunks the conservative case for a carbon tax. The op-ed is a response to a piece written by Dr. Irwin Stelzer in which he calls on conservatives to support a carbon tax. Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Murphy’s piece:

In his December 29 piece for National Review Online, Irwin Stelzer tries to convince conservatives that they should support a carbon tax because — coupled with cuts in payroll taxes — it would boost the economy. Stelzer thinks conservatives can put aside their differences with Al Gore and other extreme environmentalists: A carbon tax, the title of the piece asserts, offers “something for everyone.”

However, this is not what the peer-reviewed economics literature says. There are several reasons that a carbon tax will not deliver the boost to the economy that Stelzer and a few other conservative icons have been promising, even if it’s 100 percent revenue neutral. Some of these reasons are straightforward, while others are quite subtle.

Read the full article at National Review Online.