Growing concerns about climate change and pollution have brought environmental issues as a primary focus of the policy discussion and agenda in the United States. Since the onset of the industrial revolution over two centuries ago, there has been increasing quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The continual rise in individual and corporate consumption of fossil fuels such as coal petroleum, and natural gas, has resulted in an adverse effect on climate change.
Currently, carbon dioxide emission is the primary gas triggering global warming and accounts for nearly 80 percent of the greenhouse gas impact (Baumert, 1998). In an effort to stimulate reductions in greenhouse gas emission, the government’s policy is centered on pricing
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The purpose of the carbon tax is to address economic and social costs by holding polluters accountable for their actions. The key advantages of a carbon tax is that it provides incentive for further adoption and development of more economically friendly production process, reduces greenhouse gas emission, and raises revenues in the government.
Carbon-intensive factors or production and services are expected to be replaced with low carbon emitting alternatives as the price of use and production of carbon increase (CTC,
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Its regressive nature results in a disproportionate distribution of the burden on select groups such as low-income households, workers, and investors in emission intensive industries (CTC, 2016). The burden on these select groups such as low-income households is due to the need for spending a larger share of their income on goods and services with the largest price increase such as electricity and transportation. Thus resulting in a decrease in the purchasing power of individual’s earnings (CTC, 2016). However, this disproportionate effect can easily be offset by properly returning the revenues using the methods described earlier: direct dividend or tax shifting. In using the proper revenue distribution method, the net impact of the carbon tax can be made progressive to benefit the select