Climate Changed
From Greenspan to Yellen, Economic Brain Trust Backs Carbon Tax
- Strategy cheered by economists who served last six presidents
- Endorsement could give boost to carbon tax-and-dividend plan
Emissions rise from a coal-fired power plant in Winfield, West Virginia, U.S.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
An all-star lineup of economists, from Alan Greenspan to Paul Volcker, is endorsing a plan to combat climate change by slapping a tax on greenhouse gas emissions and then distributing the revenue to American households.
All living former Federal Reserve chairs, several Nobel Prize winners and previous leaders of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers have signed on to a statement asserting that a robust, gradually rising carbon tax is “the most cost-effective lever to reduce carbon emissions at the scale and speed that is necessary.”