Eight party statesmen, economists and past Cabinet secretaries will pitch the proposal to the Trump administration in two separate meetings at the White House. It's unclear if President Trump will attend.
The plan calls for a $40 tax on each ton of carbon dioxide. It would rise steadily over time to drive down emissions and to spur technological advances in areas like electricity generation and transportation. The revenue would be given back to Americans, amounting to about $2,000 annually to a family of four.
"Mounting evidence of climate change is growing too strong to ignore," the plan says. "While the extent to which climate change is due to man-made causes can be questioned, the risks associated with future warming are too big and should be hedged. At least we need an insurance policy."
In addition to Baker, who served as secretary of State under President George H.W. Bush, the group includes George Shultz, secretary of State under President Reagan; Henry Paulson, President George W. Bush's Treasury secretary; and two past chairmen of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Martin Feldstein under Reagan and N. Gregory Mankiw under the second Bush.
The group also includes Thomas Stephenson, a partner at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital; Rob Walton, former chairman of the board at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.; and Ted Halstead, founder of the Climate Leadership Council.
Trump rejected carbon taxes on the campaign trail, and the Republican Party used its platform to explicitly rule them out. Trump also named officials to his transition team who vehemently oppose carbon taxes, including Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance.
Yet one of Trump's closest counselors supports the idea. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson promoted carbon taxes as CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp.
The Clean Power Plan still gets repealed
Today's plan, called The Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends, argues that taxing emissions at the source, like coal mines, will help the economy and financially distressed families. It seeks to connect with the populism that Trump exploited to win the election, by saying the dividends could soothe American anger by putting cash in people's pockets.
But there's also a political calculus.
The plan suggests that Republicans are losing to Democrats on the politics of climate change. In a section titled "Consolidating Conservative Leadership," the plan argues that broad resistance to climate action within the GOP reflects "poor science and poor economics."
Read more at GOP Senior Statesmen to Pitch White House a $40 Carbon Tax
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