Environment in the News

In the article, Americans Appear Willing to Pay for a Carbon Tax Policy, published in The New York Times on September 15th, the author Michael Greenstone discusses American's willingness to pay a carbon tax in order to help with carbon and climate mitigation techniques. In this article, Greenstone details that The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), which he directs, is the entity who ran the poll. In this poll, 43% of Americans were unwilling to pay a carbon tax while the other 57% were willing to contribute one to fifty dollars a month to the tax. While this strategy could be useful for mitigation purposes, when looking further into the author of the article, this could be considered to not be in the best interest of the public, but the author and his colleagues. Greenstone not only runs EPIC, but he is also director of the International Growth Center's Energy Research Program, as well as a member of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, and a member of the Task Force on the Future of Nuclear Power. Greenstone seems to have self-interests in other forms of energy which a carbon tax could provide funding for. This could also cut down on the competition of other forms of energy and make nuclear power seem like a better option than it has in the past. I cannot argue with Greenstone's statement that politically the major road block, "for confronting climate change has perpetually been the economic challenge," but I also cannot deny the fact that the passing of legislation like this seems like it would greatly benefit Greenstone and the programs he is involved in.