The Exxon Tax
The Numbers Behind Exxon’s Support for a Carbon Tax

My columns, essays, books, as well as research and teaching materials like case studies.
The Numbers Behind Exxon’s Support for a Carbon Tax
If $40/t CO₂ were the "right" price, tax carbon and move on. $40/t isn't the right price. The Exxon-backed tax isn't it.
The second-biggest economy’s new 2060 target could be a game changer if concrete policies follow.
Catastrophic fires call for rethinking suburban NIMBYism
The pandemic has led to some obituaries for urban living, but metropolises are still the most desirable and climate-friendly places to reside
Weather extremes are intimately linked to even small increases in global average temperatures.
New information about the link between atmospheric CO₂ and eventual global average warming bolsters the case for climate policy now
To effect change, climate activists need to pursue both divestment and limiting demand for carbon emissions.
The economics of climate attribution are lagging behind the impacts of dangerous weather.
Solar geoengineering is fast, cheap, scary, and inevitable
Whether the problem is COVID-19 or climate change, the market on its own will not produce a sufficient quantity of goods – like therapeutic drugs or environmentally sustainable growth – that benefit society. Capitalizing on America’s private-sector dynamism will require the state to create incentives to produce such “social goods.”
If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is that delaying prudent policymaking does not merely result in higher marginal costs down the road. Rather, it puts us on an entirely different trajectory – one that all too easily can end in catastrophe.
Testing and taxing are important steps in the fights against the pandemic and climate change— and both have their limits.
Pausing the World to Fight Coronavirus Has Carbon Emissions Down—But True Climate Success Looks Like More Action, Not Less
Like climate economics, the economics of Covid-19 mean we need to take aggressive action, not incremental steps.
To make sense of the spread of Covid-19, economics—particularly black swan events and compound growth—can provide guidance.
The power of compound growth has long been recognized as essential to economic development. But in both the COVID-19 pandemic and the slower-moving climate crisis, this same mathematical force is cutting the other way, revealing dangerous shortcomings in how we manage externalities.
When considering travel and other choices, economic principles can provide guidance.
A $40 carbon dioxide price? Try $100, $200, or possibly more.
The money would go far in politics, but it will also allow for technological experimentation and will take a fundraising burden off recipients.