FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Friday, February 15, 2008
CONTACT: Yoni Cohen, (202) 225-3202

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Representative Pete Stark (D-CA) today responded to the Congressional Budget Office’s release of a report evaluating various proposals to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The report concludes that a carbon tax “would be the most efficient incentive-based option for reducing emissions and could be relatively easy to implement.”

“A carbon tax is our best hope of responding to climate change before its too late,” said Stark. “The Congressional Budget Office report confirms what other economists have been saying for years. A carbon tax would be predictable, transparent, universal and difficult to game. I strongly encourage my colleagues to support a carbon tax as the most sensible solution to the most significant environmental challenge we face.”

In April of 2007, Rep. Stark introduced the Save Our Climate Act (H.R. 2069) to impose a tax on carbon-based fossil fuels and slow climate change. An initial tax of $10 per ton of carbon content would be assessed on coal, petroleum and natural gas when these fossil fuels are initially removed from the ground or imported into the United States. The tax would increase by $10 each year, freezing when a mandated report by the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Energy determines that carbon dioxide emissions have decreased by 80 percent from 1990 levels.

The Congressional Budget Office report is available here.