Former White House Chief of Staff James Baker and other Republican insiders are lobbying the White House to enact a carbon tax, much to the dismay of conservatives.
Research from the Heritage Foundation shows that a carbon tax does little to help the environment or the average American.
A Heritage Foundation study analyzed a $36 per ton tax on carbon, similar to Baker’s $40 tax per ton on carbon. The think tank study suggests that the effects of a carbon tax would be:
- an average shortfall of nearly 400,000 jobs.
- an average manufacturing shortfall of over 200,000 jobs.
- a total income loss of more than $20,000 for a family of four.
- an aggregate gross domestic product loss of over $2.5 trillion.
- an increase in household electricity expenditures between 13 and 20 percent.
A carbon tax would not reduce global temperatures much either. According to a Heritage Foundation study, if the United States were to cut all carbon emissions immediately, there would only be a .137 degree Celsius drop in global temperature. If all industrialized nations eliminated all carbon emissions there would only be a .278 degree Celsius drop in global temperature.Climate activists such as EPA administrators Lisa Jackson, Gina McCartney, and former Secretary of State John Kerry admit that a substantial reduction in American carbon emissions will not substantially impact global CO2 levels.
United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres admitted there are ulterior motives to enacting a carbon tax. Figeures told reporters, “This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model, for the first time in human history.” She continued, “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years–since the industrial revolution.”