From the Nov 24 NY Times "Green Inc" blog: States Flirting With Higher Gas Taxes.
From an interactive sidebar in the Nov 19 Wall Street Journal: CEOs hunker down during crisis says that a task force of CEOs met to discuss priorities for the Obama administration. Among them: "Change tax code to encourage employment, job creation, investment, and enhance global competitiveness. Consider raising taxes on gasoline and broadening corporate tax base to lower rates."
From the wild side, I honestly have no idea what to make of this post about anti-cap-and-trade environmentalists.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Meeting at UW Tu Nov 25 12:30pm
Hey folks: Just a heads-up about a meeting on the UW campus this coming T, Nov 25, 12:30-1:20pm with Jen Marlow and Jeni Barcelos, two UW law students who interned with Sightline to study legal issues about "cap-and-dividend". (If you're curious they're also the main forces behind the "Three Degrees" conference on the law of climate change and human rights, coming up at UW May 28-29 2009.)
Anyone interested in joining should meet at the "Supreme Cup", the cafe in law school (on the ground floor across from Room 133; if you don't know where the law school is then click here). An RSVP to me would be nice too :)
Anyone who can't make it but has questions should send them to me! And of course there's our next downtown meeting on Th Dec 4 12pm.
Anyone interested in joining should meet at the "Supreme Cup", the cafe in law school (on the ground floor across from Room 133; if you don't know where the law school is then click here). An RSVP to me would be nice too :)
Anyone who can't make it but has questions should send them to me! And of course there's our next downtown meeting on Th Dec 4 12pm.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Updates and next downtown meeting Dec 4
With election day over, let's get back to work!
Feedback: In the past few weeks I've pitched our general idea (replace the state property tax with a carbon tax) at a Sustainable Industries green business forum in Seattle, at a UW Earth Club meeting, and at an EOI dinner where I had the honor of sitting with Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown (also an economist!) and Bill Gates Sr. Nobody laughed at the idea, but I must confess that nobody was particularly gung-ho about it either. The #1 question I got---over and over again---was about revenue stability: "If the carbon tax succeeds in reducing carbon emissions, what's going to happen to state tax revenue?" My belief is that we need to address this question either by (1) changing our proposal to a property tax rebate or a property tax holiday instead of a property tax repeal, or (2) changing our proposal to include a steady increase in the carbon tax rate, something that would also be a good idea from an environmental standpoint. This is something we can discuss---along with definitions of low income &etc---at our next meeting...
Next meetings: Our next downtown meeting is scheduled for Thursday Dec 4 12-1pm. I am also working on scheduling meetings at UW on some Tuesdays 12-1pm and will post notices about those as they occur.
Yoram's pep talk: I think we are very close to having an idea that we can start pitching in op-eds &etc, and as luck would have it my comedy career is providing me with facetime with some movers and shakers: last week the CEO of Puget Sound Energy said he wanted me to perform for his staff, next week I'll see Lisa Brown again, and---heck---I may even have a coffee date with Todd Myers! My point is not to brag unnecessarily (Todd Myers is actually kind of boring :) but rather to suggest that we're not just spinning our wheels. Yes our effort is a long shot, but doing anything about climate change is a long shot and we have an out-of-the-box idea and a variety of ways to plant a bug in the ear of important people. We're continuing to move forward with the website (thanks Catherine and Christy and Chistopher!) and on the policy front (thanks Bruce!) and we should keep going!
Feedback: In the past few weeks I've pitched our general idea (replace the state property tax with a carbon tax) at a Sustainable Industries green business forum in Seattle, at a UW Earth Club meeting, and at an EOI dinner where I had the honor of sitting with Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown (also an economist!) and Bill Gates Sr. Nobody laughed at the idea, but I must confess that nobody was particularly gung-ho about it either. The #1 question I got---over and over again---was about revenue stability: "If the carbon tax succeeds in reducing carbon emissions, what's going to happen to state tax revenue?" My belief is that we need to address this question either by (1) changing our proposal to a property tax rebate or a property tax holiday instead of a property tax repeal, or (2) changing our proposal to include a steady increase in the carbon tax rate, something that would also be a good idea from an environmental standpoint. This is something we can discuss---along with definitions of low income &etc---at our next meeting...
Next meetings: Our next downtown meeting is scheduled for Thursday Dec 4 12-1pm. I am also working on scheduling meetings at UW on some Tuesdays 12-1pm and will post notices about those as they occur.
Yoram's pep talk: I think we are very close to having an idea that we can start pitching in op-eds &etc, and as luck would have it my comedy career is providing me with facetime with some movers and shakers: last week the CEO of Puget Sound Energy said he wanted me to perform for his staff, next week I'll see Lisa Brown again, and---heck---I may even have a coffee date with Todd Myers! My point is not to brag unnecessarily (Todd Myers is actually kind of boring :) but rather to suggest that we're not just spinning our wheels. Yes our effort is a long shot, but doing anything about climate change is a long shot and we have an out-of-the-box idea and a variety of ways to plant a bug in the ear of important people. We're continuing to move forward with the website (thanks Catherine and Christy and Chistopher!) and on the policy front (thanks Bruce!) and we should keep going!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
No meeting Thursday
Hey folks: I'm going to cancel Thursday's meeting, so our next downtown meeting will be Thursday Dec 4 and then Thursday Jan 8.
For anybody on or near the UW campus, I'll be talking carbon taxes (and performing some comedy) for the UW Earth Club on Thursday Nov 6, 4:30-5:30pm in Mary Gates Hall Room 258.
For anybody on or near the UW campus, I'll be talking carbon taxes (and performing some comedy) for the UW Earth Club on Thursday Nov 6, 4:30-5:30pm in Mary Gates Hall Room 258.
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