Sen. Mitt Romney is “interested” in passing a carbon tax to address climate change, making him the most prominent active Republican in Congress to consider the policy.
Romney, a centrist from Utah, has been flirting with endorsing a carbon tax for months, but he’s become freshly motivated by conversations with billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who, in plugging a new book on climate change, has warned policymakers, “Don’t play around the edges.”
Romney is not quite ready to introduce or sign on to a specific bill, but he told the Washington Examiner in a recent interview that he is seriously considering and reviewing the merits of a carbon tax that would return the revenue to taxpayers.
Specifically, Romney said he is enticed by a proposal developed by former Republican Secretaries of State James Baker III and George Shultz as part of the Climate Leadership Council that would impose a carbon tax beginning at $40 per ton, increasing 5% every year, and return the revenue to households through equal quarterly payments, known as “dividends,” to offset higher energy prices.
“I am interested in the proposal because it may create incentives for the private sector to develop new technologies that will be adopted globally,” Romney said.
“The only way we are going to reduce global emissions is to have new technologies adopted globally. I am of the same mind in some respects of Bill Gates when he says our investment and focus should be on new technology.”
Romney was dismissive of the importance of climate change when he was the Republican candidate for president in 2012, but he’s prioritized it as a top area of concern since joining the Senate in 2019.
In the interview, Romney suggested the climate change policies supported by most Republicans in Congress are insufficient to drive down global emissions.
The Republican policy agenda has mostly focused on addressing climate change by promoting private sector innovation in clean energy technologies through research and development spending and tax credits.
Only one current Republican in Congress, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, has introduced carbon tax legislation.
But Romney said that a carbon tax could be a second “pillar” to the Republican strategy by encouraging companies to develop technologies more rapidly, such as carbon capture for coal and natural gas plants and advanced nuclear reactors.
“There has to be economic incentives for carbon capture technology to continue to advance and be adopted here and elsewhere,” Romney said, adding that countries with growing populations such as China, India, Indonesia, and Brazil aren’t going to adopt low-emitting technologies if they cost too much.
Romney said the U.S. won’t be able to “jawbone” China, the world’s largest emitter, into reducing its carbon pollution, a remark targeted at President Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry, who has said he wants to persuade China to cooperate on climate change even as the two powers tangle over other issues.
“We will be more effective in developing technologies which are low-cost and low-emitting where people voluntarily adopt those technologies because they are lower cost,” Romney said. “Trying to force other countries is going to become a less and less effective vehicle, particularly as we have diminished economic clout relative to places like China.”
Businesses and economists have long contended a carbon tax is the simplest and most efficient way to address greenhouse gas emissions, by applying a per-ton fee for large emitters such as power plants and refineries.
Supporters view the approach as a market-based solution, one that would encourage energy producers to switch to cleaner nonfossil fuel alternatives if doing so would cost less than paying the tax.
Big business trade groups that have opposed carbon pricing, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute, have come around to the idea as an alternative to mandates and regulations that are preferred by most Democrats and are expected to be the path pursued by Biden.
Romney dismissed the role of lobbyists in shaping his position but said he hopes other Republicans might be “influenced by those endorsements.”
“My interest in a piece of legislation is not driven by what other people or groups think but is instead based upon its actual effect,” Romney said.
He criticized Biden’s early executive actions to address climate change, such as rejecting the Keystone XL oil pipeline and pausing oil and gas leasing on public lands, policies that Romney said won’t reduce emissions and will only lead to more imports of fossil fuels.
“A lot of what my Democratic friends do is designed to make us feel we are righteous, but, in fact, it’s counterproductive,” Romney said. “If President Biden’s team puts in a lot of things that are counterproductive, I won’t be able to support that.”
As one of the few centrists in a 50-50 Senate, Romney promises to be one of the swing votes who can determine the types of climate policies that can pass Congress.
Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island told the Washington Examiner that Romney could be persuasive in recruiting other Republicans to help a carbon tax across the finish line.
Whitehouse is pushing the Biden administration and his party’s leadership to include a carbon price in infrastructure legislation that’s expected to include major spending on clean energy.
“I have a great deal of respect for Sen. Romney. I appreciate that he’s giving this issue sincere consideration and perhaps cracking a door for other Republicans to follow through,” Whitehouse said.
