Global Warming – The T3 Tax
Recently I came up with a policy proposal that reconciles my doubts about the seriousness of the global warming problem with the worries of those who don't sahre my doubts: calibrate a carbon tax to the average temperature of the region of the atmosphere predicted by climatologists to be most sensitive to CO2. I call it the ‘T3’ tax (for Temperatures in the Tropical Troposphere) and I think the proposal could, in principle, make everyone happy, except the most extreme alarmists or those whose stance on global warming is merely a pretext for some other agenda.
The Post op-ed explains the T3 concept briefly. It got a lot of attention on the internet (partly through a headline link on Arts and Letters Daily). The Vancouver Volumes chapter develops the idea in full technical detail. I also did an interview about the T3 Tax on the Australian radio show Counterpoint (ABC). The 4-page E&E piece is a commentary in Environment and Energy. It provides a more detailed summary than the Post op-ed.
The Post op-ed explains the T3 concept briefly. It got a lot of attention on the internet (partly through a headline link on Arts and Letters Daily). The Vancouver Volumes chapter develops the idea in full technical detail. I also did an interview about the T3 Tax on the Australian radio show Counterpoint (ABC). The 4-page E&E piece is a commentary in Environment and Energy. It provides a more detailed summary than the Post op-ed.
- *McKitrick, Ross R. (2007) The T3 Tax as a Policy Strategy for Global Warming. In Nakamura, A. ed. The Vancouver Volumes Trafford Press, forthcoming.
- McKitrick, Ross R. Call Their Tax Bluff (National Post June 12, 2007)
- Counterpoint Interview (Sept 10 2007) Go to the 38 minute mark.
- *McKitrick, Ross R. (2007) Calling the Carbon Bluff Environment & Energy 19(5) 707-711.
- McKitrick, Ross R. (2007) Let Policy Follow Science: Tie a Carbon Tax to Actual Warming. (Christian Science Monitor December 3, 2007
John Tierney of the New York Times did a feature on the T3 tax on December 15, 2009:
If that link goes dead a PDF of the article is here.
I released a formal version of my T3 Tax proposal as a working paper through SSRN. A revised version has been published in Energy Economics.
- McKitrick, Ross R. (2010) A Simple State-Contingent Pricing Rule for Complex Intertemporal Externalities. Energy Economics doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2010.06.013. Data/code archive.
