Full Title: Comparing the Benefits and Costs of Notable Climate Policies
Author(s): Philip Rossetti
Publisher(s): American Action Forum
Publication Date: May 8, 2019
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Advocates of dramatic climate policy often presume that the urgency and scope of the problem by default means that no policy proposal is too costly or too radical.
An “at any cost” approach to policy can lead to outcomes that have higher costs than benefits, inflicting more harm than help, and this is true even for exigent collective action problems.
Analyzing the costs and benefits of electricity and transportation policies in the Green New Deal using the Social Cost of Carbon shows the costs are several times larger than the capturable benefits—but policies not in the Green New Deal, like a revenue-neutral carbon tax, are more likely to produce more benefits than costs.