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Shi-Ling Hsu: The case for a carbon tax (2011, Island Press) 2 stars

I tried...

2 stars

So I ordered this from the library as part of a good faith attempt to understand the argument for a carbon tax, but I'm afraid I just can't finish it. The first half or so of the book outlines four possible ways of reducing emissions (carbon taxes, government regulation (which the author calls 'command-and-control'), cap-and-trade, and government subsidies -- we'll just skate over the problem with picking these, plus making them as strawman as possible) and then provides ten arguments in support of carbon taxes, which basically seems to consist of demonstrating the superiority of carbon taxes over whichever of the other three is the weakest. I actually only made it four arguments in before I had to give up in frustration. I then jumped forward to the arguments against carbon taxes. This felt so wishy-washy that it felt like there was no serious attempt to engage. In particular, the author critiqued a CCPA study that pointed out that the BC carbon tax was regressive, but with the weakest arguments I've seen in a long time. It really felt like the book just started from a 'market forces good, government intervention bad' and then expanded that without any attempt at serious study or analysis. I have the CUP book on 'Climate Capitalism' out of the library too, but at this point I'll probably just take them both back -- I don't really have the energy to engage with this kind of attempt at an argument.