I don’t want to hurt the economy, I want it to be strong. In a poor economy, people don’t care about the environment, they only care about themselves. That said, the invisible hand is a powerful tool and the easiest way to use it is with taxes. Subsidies can lead to all kinds of perverse incentives and corruption. A straight tax on carbon levied on each energy source will drive consumers to cheaper, and cleaner, sources. Companies, especially farmers and transportation companies who use the majority of energy in this country, will pass these costs straight on to their customers and all prices will rise. This is why corporate income taxes are stupid, all they do is increase the costs of products as the corporations strive to maintain their profit margins. To compensate for the rise in prices (which will be in effect a very regressive tax), we need to cut the income tax drastically especially on the low end. I am thinking of a negative income tax here to offset the price increase on food to to higher enrgy costs. Strive to make the system both revenue neutral and impact neutral.
we should also do what we can to increase nuclear power. Fukishima aside, there are ways to do this safely and the technology has moved on since those reactors were built. Also from a purely statistical perspective, it may be much safer. I.e., one level 7 disator every 20 years leads to 2000 more cancer cases compared to a coal plant releasing toxins (including radiation) leading to 10,000 more cancer cases in the same time period. These numbers are just made up, but surely we could do this calculation.when you add in the potential negative effects of climate change, the results may be irrefutable for all the horror associated with a level 7 accident.
I like biofuels because they also teach us an efficient way to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Changing technologies and increasing efficiency is a good thing, but it is only a marginal change; it will only give us a 2-3x reduction, at best. We need a paradigm shift to get the 10x reduction we need.