Energy

Oil Industry And Left-Wing Enviros Find Common Cause In A Carbon Tax

REUTERS/Mike Theiler

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Michael Bastasch DCNF Managing Editor
Font Size:

Environmentalists have linked arms with the oil industry to push a nationwide tax on carbon dioxide emissions as a “conservative” way to fight global warming.

The Climate Leadership Council (CLC) unveiled Tuesday some of the world’s largest oil and gas companies were among its donors, including BP, ExxonMobil, Total and Royal Dutch Shell.

CLC bills its carbon tax plan as a “consensus” way to fight global warming using “conservative principles of free markets and limited government.” The group first unveiled its carbon tax plan in February and even met with White House officials.

Former Republican officials, including former Secretary of State George Shultz and Bush economic adviser Gregory Mankiw, joined CLC to push its carbon tax proposal. Yet, no elected Republicans back this proposal, neither do most conservative groups.

According to the group’s WSJ ad, CLC wants a “gradually rising and revenue-neutral carbon tax,” starting at $40 per ton, and hand out “dividend payments to all Americans, funded by 100% of the revenue.”

The group also says the U.S. could “rollback of carbon regulations that are no longer necessary” and impose a border tax “to level the playing field and promote American competitiveness.”

CLC is a strategic partner with the World Resources Institute (WRI), an environmental group that backed the Paris climate accord and Obama administration energy regulations.

“President Trump and Congress would do well to heed these voices and put in place policies like the CLC proposal to achieve these twin goals,” WRI President Andrew Steer said in a statement on CLC’s unveiling of its oil industry funding.

Though Steer seemed to diverge from CLC on regulations. He proposed keeping existing global warming policies in place until a carbon tax is imposed, adding that “complementary policies addressing other market failures and non-carbon greenhouse gasses will be needed.”

Environmentalists have been working for years to convince conservatives to support a carbon tax, including pumping money into right-leaning groups. But so far, few Republican officials or conservative activists embrace the idea.

CLC’s timing may also be off. A carbon tax is sold as a compromise to federal regulations, but the Trump administration is already in the process of repealing Obama-era climate rules and will withdraw from the Paris agreement.

In other words, there’s no compromise to be made.

Large oil companies have backed carbon taxes in the past, and now some fund CLC’s plan for a $40 per ton carbon tax.

Most notably, Exxon has backed a carbon tax for years, including under former CEO Rex Tillerson, who now serves as secretary of state. Europe-based oil companies BP and Total want the U.S. to price carbon for “consistency” between the U.S. and Europe.

A carbon tax would also encourage more utilities, at least in the short-term, to use more natural gas, which emits less than coal. BP, Exxon, Total and Shell are all heavily invested in natural gas production and trading.

Oil companies are also putting money into green energy technologies, including solar, wind and biofuels. Exxon recently announced a major scientific breakthrough in its effort to commercialize algae-based biofuels.

Follow Michael on Facebook and Twitter

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel