Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal Would More Than Triple Price of Gas, 'Destroy Economy,' Experts Say
One aspect of the proposed Green New Deal supported by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York could lead to gas price increases topping $10 a gallon, according to a new study.
The CO2 Coalition recently completed its study of a carbon tax, one of the main elements in plans to push alternatives to fossil fuels on Americans.
In the study, titled, “The Social Cost of Carbon and Carbon Taxes: ‘Pick a number, any number,’” the group said a government-contrived value called the Social Cost of Carbon — developed under the Obama administration, has no practical value in determining policy.
The Social Cost of Carbon, the study notes, “is an estimate of the discounted future costs to the world economy due to the atmospheric warming caused by a metric ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.”
One piece of the study looked at what it would take to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by getting gas-powered cars off the road and replacing them with electric vehicles, which, according to the Washington Examiner, is one of the Green New Deal’s goals.
“Obviously we are not going to martial law, so how do you get people to switch?” CO2 Coalition Executive Director Caleb S. Rossiter said. “They’re not going to grab your car by force, so you have to discourage the use.”
The result, the study projects, would be a tax of at least $10 per gallon, far above the current total cost of a gallon of gas, which the study estimated at $2.75.
The total cost of a gallon of gas could approach a whopping $13.
The study calculated these figures by noting it costs about $2,700 more per year to use an electric car than a gas-powered one.
In order to get consumers to switch, the government would have to drive up prices through taxation to make it more costly to own a gas-powered vehicle than an electric one.
“That is the economic breaking point of driving gas-powered cars,” Rossiter told the Examiner.
Study author Bruce Everett, a former Department of Energy economist who now serves as a professor at Tufts University, said $10 per gallon would not be the stopping point.
He estimated a carbon tax “would have to rise to $13 per gallon in order to make electric cars desirable to consumers.”
Rossiter told the Examiner that such a high tax “would destroy the economy.”
The study also pokes holes in the argument that restraining Americans’ output of carbon dioxide will save the planet.
“It is also important to recall that climate is not a national issue, but a global one,” the study said.
“The United States, at 5 billion metric tons, currently accounts for about 15 percent of global CO2 emissions. China, on the other hand, emits over 9 billion metric tons per year, which is over 25 percent of the world total,” it added.
“Yet China shows no inclination to reduce emissions, and has not in fact been asked to do so under the Paris Climate agreement until after the year 2030. Even the major reduction in U.S. CO2 emissions that many American politicians claim is needed to avoid catastrophe would have little impact on global atmospheric concentrations.”
The study reported that a carbon tax would not lead to green for the planet as much as more green for politicians to spend.
“Imposition of a U.S. carbon tax linked to the current value of the SCC would carry no benefits, but would cause some damage to the US economy. The greater danger, however, is the insatiable need of politicians on both sides of the aisle for more money to spend,” the report reads.
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