For Immediate Release
Contact: Louisa Tavlas
Phone: 571-527-6403
Email: ltavlas@niskanencenter.org
Niskanen Center Applauds Introduction of the 2019 MARKET CHOICE Act
(Washington D.C., September 26, 2019)— The Niskanen Center applauds Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1), Salud Carbajal (CA-24), Scott Peters (CA-52), and Francis Rooney (FL-19) for their new proposal: Modernizing America with Rebuilding to Kickstart the Economy of the Twenty-first Century with a Historic Infrastructure-Centered Expansion Act (MARKET CHOICE) Act of 2019. If passed, the MARKET CHOICE Act would generate revenue for maintaining and modernizing American infrastructure by levying a tax on carbon pollution and eliminating the federal gas tax. Combined with a meaningful increase in R&D funding for low-carbon technology, these measures will help reduce the long-term costs of decarbonization and accelerate emissions reductions in the United States.
“The MARKET CHOICE Act of 2019 is a positive development of what was already an innovative approach to addressing some of our nation’s most pressing issues. We need to update and fund infrastructure for the 21st Century. At the same time, we need to cut carbon pollution without imposing too high a cost or leaving people behind. By transitioning federal infrastructure funding from the gas tax to a carbon tax, the MARKET CHOICE Act will allow us to cut emissions efficiently and effectively while addressing our crumbling infrastructure,” said Joseph Majkut, the Niskanen Center’s director of climate policy.
“It also wisely makes investments to support the nascent carbon capture and clean energy technologies we will need to build a thriving low-carbon economy and the clean jobs of the future,” he added.
In embracing pricing carbon emissions through a carbon tax, the MARKET CHOICE Act utilizes the best tool Congress has at its disposal for achieving emissions reductions at low cost and the needed scale. Economic modeling indicates that a carbon tax at the levels set by the MARKET CHOICE Act will reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 42 percent against 2005 levels in the first ten years of the tax, while improving the business environment by pausing the implementation of new greenhouse gas regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency..
“The MARKET CHOICE Act shows real creativity and leadership, aiming to solve two of the biggest challenges facing modern day America, funding infrastructure and responding to climate change. We hope that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle take note,” said Majkut.
The Niskanen Center is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank working to change public policy through direct engagement in the policymaking process.
###
Photo by Ramaz Bluashvili from Pexels