Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue walked back an apparent endorsement of the federal government putting a price on carbon emissions, which would have been a break with the rest of the Trump administration.
The confusion came after Perdue announced environmental goals for the Agriculture Department on Thursday that included halving the U.S. farming industry’s environmental footprint by mid-century and urging farmers to boost carbon sequestration in soils.
In a briefing later with reporters, Perdue was asked about a carbon price.
He responded by saying that “legitimate, measurable carbon trading” could spur carbon sequestration by giving farmers an incentive to innovate, according to the Financial Times.
“If it is a social goal and social priority there, then let’s put a price over carbon emissions,” Perdue said. “And I think you can really see farmers show out in their carbon sequestration efforts.”
After the story got attention, an Agriculture Department spokesperson clarified to the Washington Examiner on Friday that Perdue did not mean to endorse a carbon tax or other pricing mechanism imposed by the federal government.
“If the free market puts a value on carbon, the secretary believes the agriculture sector is well-positioned to quantify the benefits of soil carbon sequestration to take advantage of that economic opportunity for producers,” the spokesperson said. “He does not endorse the idea of a carbon tax or government price-setting.”
Perdue backing federal carbon pricing would have been a significant break with the Trump administration’s otherwise uniform opposition to the idea.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke out against carbon taxes at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month, calling the idea “a tax on hardworking people.”
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, previously a conservative congressman from South Carolina, was quoted in a speech this week saying the Trump administration would not support raising taxes to address climate change.
“We take the position in my party that asking people to change their lifestyle dramatically, including by paying more taxes, is simply not something we are interested in doing,” Mulvaney said Wednesday at the Oxford Union, according to the Washington Post.
Mulvaney was responding to a question about why the federal government was not spending and doing more to fight climate change.
