Last month, Canada rolled out its federal carbon tax to four provinces, creating a new tax on all goods based on their total carbon footprint. While polluting less is a worthy goal for us all, the plan will only take money from taxpayers to fill government coffers. Instead of imitating Canada’s broad, ineffective tax, the United States should focus on promoting more responsible, lower emitting modes of power generation.

As we transition to a lower-emitting generation future, we must be made aware of the economic choices available while not sacrificing the reliability of our nation’s electric grid. Government-mandated subsidies (i.e., green bonds, tax subsidies or out-of-market contracts and mandates) and broad carbon taxes do not accomplish the goal of economically rational decision-making, which is made possible through transparent and open markets.