The Wall Street Journal reported today that Joe Biden plans to nominate former Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen to become the next Treasury Secretary.
Yellen is a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council (CLC), an “international policy institute” lobbying Congress to pass a carbon tax “starting at $40 a ton (2017$) and increasing every year at 5% above inflation.” Yellen is also the author of a recent study commissioned by CLC, Exceeding Paris, that recommends a $43/ton carbon tax.
According to an internal report conducted by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential Campaign, a near-identical model of CLC’s carbon tax plan “would generate $219 billion a year, on average, between 2020 and 2030.” The same internal report also concluded a $42/ton carbon tax “increases gasoline prices by roughly 40 cents per gallon” and found “average household energy costs would increase by roughly $480 per year.”
Yellen: “Capitalism is beginning to run amok”
“There really is a new kind of recognition that you’ve got a society where capitalism is beginning to run amok and needs to be readjusted in order to make sure that what we’re doing is sustainable and the benefits of growth are widely shared in ways they haven’t been,” Yellen told Reuters in an October interview promoting CLC’s carbon tax plan.
Support for Carbon Adjustment Fee and Carbon Customs Unions
In the same Reuters report, Yellen expanded upon Biden’s support for a “carbon adjustment fee” on imports from countries that fail to cut emissions under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. “Our thinking is that countries with carbon pricing would form essentially clubs, or carbon customs unions, within which there would be frictionless trade,” Yellen said.
Further Support for Carbon Taxes
In an October 19 interview on Bloomberg television, Biden’s Treasury pick Janet Yellen said:
“What I would recommend for the United States — that hopefully we will in the years ahead, go in this direction — is simply to put in place a carbon tax.”
Biden’s Own Support for a Carbon Tax
Biden endorsed a carbon tax during on CNN town hall on September 24, 2019:
CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Biden: “Would you support a carbon tax?”
Biden replied: “Yeah, no, I would.“