E3 Network economist, and Real Climate Economics blogger, Frank Ackerman is quoted in this article by Judith Schwartz in Miller McCune.
Cap and trade is dead — long live the Green Dividend.
That was the consensus of a conference on pricing carbon held late last year at Wesleyan University that produced the “Wesleyan Statement,” a kind of working manifesto on carbon-pricing principles.
According to the resulting statement, an effective pricing strategy would be “upstream” (i.e. paid by the supplier), calibrated to reach emissions levels recommended by climate scientists, and steadily rising so that businesses and individuals can plan.
Speakers advocated a direct, transparent price on carbon as an economic incentive for reducing fossil fuel use, with revenues returned to U.S. taxpayers. Up for debate was whether this would be in the form of a direct payment (a “green check”) or tax reduction (“tax shift”).
Read the rest of the article here.