The Grand Oil Party: House Republicans denounce a carbon tax | Dana Nuccitelli

Lobbying from the petroleum industry may have convinced Republicans to denounce a carbon taxOn Friday, the US House of Representatives voted on a Resolution condemning a carbon tax. As The Hill reported:Lawmakers passed, by a 237-163 vote, a GOP-backed resolution listing pitfalls from a tax on carbon dioxide emissions and concluding that such a policy “would be detrimental to American families and businesses, and is not in the best interest of the United States.”Six Democrats voted with the GOP for the resolution. No Republicans dissented.And it’s not just a matter of lobbying by Big Oil and the Koch operation on how Republicans ought to vote; given their control over the Republican Party, it is very likely that the vote itself was brought up at their behest.It is worrying to me that the House would consider legislation to oppose a common-sense approach to addressing climate change. Instead of relying on dozens of federal and state regulations that themselves are costly, a carbon tax would be transparent and cost-effective.The first Scalise Carbon tax amendment passed the House on Aug 2, 2013. It had 155 co-sponsors. Today’s Scalise amendment had only 82 co-sponsors, and rumor has it that the leadership was strongly going after its membership to vote with the party. The fact that the vote took place two days after originally scheduled may support that. So what I see is a recycled idea with less support and on which the party leadership is having to work harder to enforce the party line ....The language of Scalise, by completely ignoring the case of a revenue-neutral carbon fee, is easily countered by existing statements from conservative economists. In short, while annoying, I don’t see this vote as a problem we didn’t already have, nor do I see it as remotely insurmountable. Continue reading...