Should-Read: Martin Feldstein, Ted Halstead and Greg Mankiw: A Conservative Case for Climate Action

Should-Read: I see no reason why this could not have been written and published in, say, August of 2009. No reason, that is, save that Mitch McConnell and John Boehner had passed the word that Obama was to get as few policy “victories” as possible.

Then it would have done good. Now? I may be wrong, but I can’t see it having any impact at all. Anytime you begin an oped with “crazy as it may sound…” and “call us nuts…”, I see you:

Martin Feldstein, Ted Halstead and Greg Mankiw: A Conservative Case for Climate Action: “CRAZY as it may sound, this is the perfect time to enact a sensible policy to address the dangerous threat of climate change…

…Before you call us nuts, hear us out….
Our co-authors include James A. Baker III, Treasury secretary for President Ronald Reagan and secretary of state for President George H. W. Bush; Henry M. Paulson Jr., Treasury secretary for President George W. Bush; George P. Shultz, Treasury secretary for President Richard Nixon and secretary of state for Mr. Reagan; Thomas Stephenson, a partner at Sequoia Capital, a venture-capital firm; and Rob Walton, who recently completed 23 years as chairman of Walmart….

The federal government would impose a gradually increasing tax on carbon dioxide emissions… at $40 per ton…. The proceeds would be returned to the American people on an equal basis via quarterly dividend checks…. American companies exporting to countries without comparable carbon pricing would receive rebates on the carbon taxes they’ve paid on those products, while imports from such countries would face fees on the carbon content of their products…. Finally, regulations made unnecessary by the carbon tax would be eliminated, including an outright repeal of the Clean Power Plan…