BIG OIL CRONYISM: Top Republicans Visit White House to Promote Carbon Tax

A group of prominent Republicans and business leaders pitched a tax on carbon dioxide to top White House aides Wednesday, reports Bloomberg.

Former Secretary of State James "Big Oil" Baker and other members of the new "Climate Leadership Council" pressed the case in a 45-minute meeting in the Roosevelt Room that included President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser Gary Cohn, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and senior aide Kellyanne Conway.

"The signs were very encouraging," Ted Halstead, who founded the council, said after the meeting. "Two weeks into this new administration, we have positioned our solution as the most promising climate solution -- if they want to go there."

Baker also met briefly with Vice President Mike Pence.

Bottom line: The tax is a pro-big oil tax promoted by Mobil-Exxon. The devil is in the details.

The approach runs, for example, counter to Trump’s campaign promise to help bring back coal-mining jobs. Because it generates more carbon dioxide emissions than natural gas and oil, coal would be the fossil fuel hardest hit by a tax on carbon.

And get this (via Bloomberg)

The proposal also calls for border adjustments that would act to hike the costs of products imported from countries that do not put a price on carbon. The tax would be imposed at the point fossil fuels enter the economy, such as when oil leaves the refinery or coal leaves the mine.

  -RW