Full Title: Linking Climate Policy to Fiscal and Environmental Reform
Author(s): Ted Gayer
Publisher(s): The Brookings Institute
Publication Date: March 1, 2012
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Both presidential candidates in 2008 campaigned for an economy-wide cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases as the centerpiece of climate policy. Senator John McCain was an early and frequent supporter of cap-and-trade, co-sponsoring a number of such bills, including the Climate Stewardship Act of 2003 and the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007. He campaigned on a plan to enact an economy-wide cap-and- trade system to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 60 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. As a senator, Barack Obama never sponsored any climate bills, but he campaigned on a plan to enact an economy-wide cap-and-trade system to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.