Matthew Yglesias makes a pretty convincing argument that the most effective path to slowing down climate change is putting a price on carbon. Right now, carbon emissions are untaxed, so there’s no market mechanism to reward a reduction in carbon emissions other than the price of using energy. Unfortunately, energy prices are largely decoupled from their environmental impact.
October 9, 2009 at 9:48 am
yes, this is Pigou Club (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigou_Club) as conceived by Harvard economist Greg Mankiw – http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/10/pigou-club-manifesto.html