Washington Post Finds Merit in Three Ways to Tackle GHG Emissions

The Washington Post, in an editorial published today on President Obama's planned meeting with senators about climate and energy legislation, said the most helpful thing they could do was "put a gradually rising price on the carbon emissions produced by the burning of fossil fuels. The best way to do this would be with a simple tax."

Second best, said the Post, would be cap and trade: "Some argue that it's more realistic for Democrats to press only for politically attractive things such as clean-energy mandates, efficiency standards, research and development funding and lots of energy subsidies. But that approach is expensive and almost certainly inadequate to meet even the underwhelming medium-term emissions targets Mr. Obama has set."

The Post suggested a third option, to include "those politically attractive measures, as well as GOP priorities such as generous provisions for nuclear power and some of the efficiency programs that Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) proposed in a bill he recently unveiled--but to add a cap on emissions from utilities," because setting a "price on carbon even in one economic sector might make it easier to establish a more effective cap in the future."