The United States face enormous challenges in the energy area. Climate change, biofuels policy, energy security and environmental degradation are all intimately bound up with energy production and consumption. Historically, the federal government has relied on tax subsidies to effect energy policy. With mounting federal deficits, policymakers and advocates are increasingly calling for a rethinking of our energy tax policy. How can the federal tax code strengthen environmental policy and reduce security concerns in the area of energy? The authors tackle such difficult problems as climate change, efficient taxation of oil and gas, and optimal oil tax policy in a world with OPEC oil producers dominating world oil supply. This volume presents a number of innovative policy suggestions backed by sophisticated and cutting-edge research carried out by leading scholars in the area of energy taxation.

The threats posed by global climate change are widely recognized and carbon emmissions are the major source of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere. Burning fossil fuels causes long-lasting, pervasive damages, costly to those of us alive today and even more to our children and our children's children. The United States is the second largest carbon emitting country in the world and should play a key role in global efforts to reduce emissions. Paying for Pollution incisively examines the very real costs-economic and social-of climate change and the challenges of concerted action to reduce future losses due to damages of higher temperatures and more extreme weather. Gilbert E. Metcalf argues that there is a convergence of social, economic, environmental, and political forces that provides an opening for a new approach to climate policy, one based on market principles that can appeal to politicians across the political spectrum. After all, markets work best when the price of a good reflects all its costs. Metcalf suggests that a thoughtfully and politically sensitive designed carbon tax could also contribute to an improved tax system, something desired by Republican and Democratic politicians alike. That is, a carbon tax increases fiscal flexibility by providing new revenues to finance reforms to the income tax that improve the fairness of the tax code and contribute to economic growth. Metcalf compares the benefits of a carbon tax to other potential policies, such as cap and trade, to reduce the threats of climate change. None, he shows, are as effective, efficient, and fair as a carbon tax.

The United States faces enormous challenges in the energy area. Climate change, biofuels policy, energy security, and environmental degradation are all intimately bound up with energy production and consumption. Historically, the federal government has relied on tax subsidies to effect energy policy. With mounting federal deficits, policymakers and advocates are increasingly calling for a rethinking of our energy tax policy. How can the federal tax code strengthen environmental policy and reduce security concerns in the area of energy? This book brings together leading tax scholars to answer this question. The authors tackle such difficult problems as climate change, efficient taxation of oil and gas, and optimal oil tax policy in a world with OPEC oil producers dominating world oil supply. This volume presents a number of innovative policy suggestions backed by sophisticated and cutting-edge research carried out by leading scholars in the area of energy taxation. Scholars and policymakers alike will appreciate the incisive analysis and discussion of critical issues that are part of the twenty-first-century energy challenge.