Joe Biden’s Treasury Secretary pick wants to impose a carbon tax on the American people. Biden and Kamala Harris have also endorsed a carbon tax, an idea so radical that it was rejected by Hillary Clinton because it would devastate low income households.
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 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.“
Harris endorsed a carbon tax. “Under my plan there will also be a carbon fee,” she said. CNN asked her, “How do you make sure that [companies] don’t do what they will try to do, which is immediately pass that on to consumers?”
Harris replied: “That should never be the reason not to actually put a fee, in particular, a carbon fee.“
Another key Biden adviser — Jennifer Hillman — said she expects Biden to impose a “very high” carbon tax. Hillman is reportedly in the mix for a job in the Biden administration.
A carbon tax would impose burdens on households due to higher costs of cooling and heating, transportation, and groceries.
Even Hillary Clinton in 2016 decided to oppose a carbon tax after she learned the following from an internal Clinton report prepared by policy staff:
The Hillary memo states that a carbon tax would devastate low-income households: “As with the increase in energy costs, the increase in the cost of nonenergy goods and services would disproportionately impact low-income households.”
The Hillary memo states that a carbon tax would cause gas prices to increase 40 cents a gallon and residential electricity prices to increase 12% – 21%: “In our analysis, for example, a $42/ton GHG fee increases gasoline prices by roughly 40 cents per gallon on average between 2020 and 2030 and residential electricity prices by 2.6 cents per kWh, 12% and 21% above levels projected in the EIA’s 2014 Annual Energy Outlook respectively.
The Hillary memo states a carbon tax would cause household energy bills to go up significantly: “Average household energy costs would increase by roughly $480 per year, or 10% relative to the levels projected in EIA’s 2014 Outlook.”
The Hillary memo states that a carbon tax would increase the cost of household goods and services: “The cost of other household goods and services would increase as well as companies pass forward the higher energy costs paid to produce those goods and services on to consumers.”
(Source: MEMORANDUM FOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON — Jan. 20, 2015)
Carbon taxes are highly unpopular with voters. In fact, carbon tax advocates can’t even get a carbon tax passed in a single blue state, as this timeline shows.
Carbon taxes also saddle state and local governments with huge costs. For example, a school district in Canada was forced to kick 400 kids off the school bus program in order to pay a $3.3 million carbon tax bill.
It’s no wonder conservative groups wrote a letter to Congress Stating: “We oppose any carbon tax.” The official Republican Party platform also rejects “any carbon tax.”
Biden’s carbon tax will also shatter his pledge to each and every American making less than $400,000 that he will not raise a single penny of any tax.