Wednesday, November 26, 2014

The Latest Global Warming Bill and the Republican Conundrum

“Solution Aversion: On the Relation between Ideology and Motivated Disbelief,” Campbell and Kay, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.  (Credit: American Psychological Association) Click to Enlarge.
Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) introduced a climate bill in the US Senate last week.  The American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act proposes to tax carbon pollution at the source or at the border for imports, and return 100% of the revenue to taxpayers.  The tax would therefore be revenue-neutral, not increasing the size of government.

A revenue-neutral carbon tax has become an increasingly popular proposal for tackling global warming.  Liberals have long been on board with requiring that polluters pay for their carbon emissions, but in the United States and a few other countries where climate science is treated as a partisan issue, conservatives have been resistant to this concept.

Research has shown that fear of government regulations is one of the primary reasons conservatives tend to reject the overwhelming scientific evidence for human-caused global warming.  A majority of Republicans accept the scientific reality when they realize there are free market solutions available.

Read More at The Latest Global Warming Bill and the Republican Conundrum

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