President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Pete Buttigieg to be his transportation secretary. Buttigieg would be yet another cabinet member that wants to impose a carbon tax on the American people, joining Biden and Kamala Harris themselves, John Kerry, Janet Yellen, and Neera Tanden, among others.
Buttigieg is on record many times in support of a carbon tax. On December 19 of last year, Pete Buttigieg voiced his support for a carbon tax during the PBS/Politico Democratic debate.
“And it’s why I insist we act with a carbon tax and dividend with massive increases in renewable research on renewable energy storage and carbon storage,” Buttigieg said.
On another occasion he said: “It’s one of the reasons why I propose we assess a carbon tax. I know you’re not supposed to use the ‘T’ word when you’re in politics, but we might as well call it what it is.”
Buttigieg also endorsed the carbon tax in writing on his website:
Implement a Green New Deal with all available tools including a carbon tax-and-dividend for Americans, and major direct investment to build a 100% clean energy society.
Below: Watch Buttigieg endorse a carbon tax
Biden also 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.“
Kamala 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.
Carbon taxes are highly unpopular. Despite constant claims of “momentum”, carbon tax advocates can’t even get a carbon tax passed in a single blue state, as this timeline shows.
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 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.