The Debate Over Carbon Taxes.

So yesterday Dan Sperling had an oped in the LA Times talking about why carbon taxes make no sense for the transportation sector in California (40% of CO2 emissions in California are from transportation sources). Instead, Sperling wants a low-carbon fuel standard.

Well today, the good folks at the Carbon Tax Center, in a remarkably civil rebuttal (for the blogosphere, that is), are calling B.S.

[How refreshing is it to see an advocacy group actually own up to its true purpose in its name? These guys couldn’t be more up front about the fact that they want to levy new taxes. If this were Washington, D.C., that same group would probably be called something like, “Citizens for Energy Efficiency and Climate Enhancement” or something similarly stupid and misleading. But, I digress….]

According to the CTC: “we estimate that a statewide carbon tax would draw 60% of all of its carbon reductions from the electricity sector (which is responsible for 42-43% of that state’s CO2), but only 10% from gasoline (which accounts for 20% of emissions).”

In the end, anyone can make numbers say anything so you’ll have to figure out for yourself who’s right.