Madmallard
.223 Rem
ALBANY — Standard political catechism advises most politicians to avoid going on the record in support of a new tax.
But that's not the case with one upstate lawmaker. Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Ulster, has begun the push for a statewide carbon tax, a measure that is intended to address climate pollution and global warming and nudge the state further toward its goal of increased reliance on renewable forms of energy.
"Although the word 'tax' may not be a popular one," said Cahill, "I do not intend to hide what this program really is."
Cahill, former chair of the Assembly Energy Committee, said that if the state imposes a financial disincentive on fossil fuels, it could change behaviors in ways that reduces carbon pollution.
DEC WOULD SET RATE
Cahill's bill and companion legislation promoted by Sen. Kevin Parker, D-Brooklyn, make New York the ninth state in the nation in which carbon pricing is being debated as policymakers grapple with the environmental threats caused by greenhouse-gas emissions.
Their legislation would tax fuel distributors and utility companies "at a rate and schedule to be determined by the Department of Environmental Conservation," according to the bill.
The bill would authorize the state to distribute 60 percent of the revenue generated by the tax to low-income people via tax credits and send 40 percent of the funds to efforts aimed at bringing about "100 percent clean energy in the state."
NATIONAL ISSUE
In New York, and elsewhere, the fight is expected to be an uphill one.
Albany, according to the Business Council of New York, the lobby for many companies doing business here, is the wrong venue for such a debate.
“The creation of a carbon tax is a discussion that, if it’s going to occur at all, should occur on the national level," said Business Council spokesman Zack Hutchins.
He noted the state is already heralded as having the lowest per capita emissions in the nation.
"Enacting a New York state solution would do little or nothing to negate the impacts of global climate change and would only serve to hasten the exodus of people and businesses from our state," he said.
NO POSITION FROM CUOMO
The issue is a touchy one for the Cuomo administration. A spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who many statehouse insiders believe is gearing up for a run for the White House in 2020, did not respond to questions about the carbon-tax legislation.
One Cuomo administration official, Mark Lowery, an analyst assigned to DEC's Office of Climate Change, acknowledged in a talk last November that the administration has yet to figure out its stance on carbon pricing.
"I have to be very careful about what I say here because there are now, in New York, a number of competing proposals to put a price on carbon emissions, and my boss has not decided yet what he is going to support," Lowery said in a presentation to the Friends of Five Rivers, a nature center near Albany.
Lowery said he personally favors the price approach.
"If we do not put a price on carbon emissions and make polluters pay one way or another," he said, "then the only thing that is going to get done are things that white middle-class Americans do voluntarily, and that won't be enough."
Push for carbon tax reaches both chambers of statehouse
But that's not the case with one upstate lawmaker. Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Ulster, has begun the push for a statewide carbon tax, a measure that is intended to address climate pollution and global warming and nudge the state further toward its goal of increased reliance on renewable forms of energy.
"Although the word 'tax' may not be a popular one," said Cahill, "I do not intend to hide what this program really is."
Cahill, former chair of the Assembly Energy Committee, said that if the state imposes a financial disincentive on fossil fuels, it could change behaviors in ways that reduces carbon pollution.
DEC WOULD SET RATE
Cahill's bill and companion legislation promoted by Sen. Kevin Parker, D-Brooklyn, make New York the ninth state in the nation in which carbon pricing is being debated as policymakers grapple with the environmental threats caused by greenhouse-gas emissions.
Their legislation would tax fuel distributors and utility companies "at a rate and schedule to be determined by the Department of Environmental Conservation," according to the bill.
The bill would authorize the state to distribute 60 percent of the revenue generated by the tax to low-income people via tax credits and send 40 percent of the funds to efforts aimed at bringing about "100 percent clean energy in the state."
NATIONAL ISSUE
In New York, and elsewhere, the fight is expected to be an uphill one.
Albany, according to the Business Council of New York, the lobby for many companies doing business here, is the wrong venue for such a debate.
“The creation of a carbon tax is a discussion that, if it’s going to occur at all, should occur on the national level," said Business Council spokesman Zack Hutchins.
He noted the state is already heralded as having the lowest per capita emissions in the nation.
"Enacting a New York state solution would do little or nothing to negate the impacts of global climate change and would only serve to hasten the exodus of people and businesses from our state," he said.
NO POSITION FROM CUOMO
The issue is a touchy one for the Cuomo administration. A spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who many statehouse insiders believe is gearing up for a run for the White House in 2020, did not respond to questions about the carbon-tax legislation.
One Cuomo administration official, Mark Lowery, an analyst assigned to DEC's Office of Climate Change, acknowledged in a talk last November that the administration has yet to figure out its stance on carbon pricing.
"I have to be very careful about what I say here because there are now, in New York, a number of competing proposals to put a price on carbon emissions, and my boss has not decided yet what he is going to support," Lowery said in a presentation to the Friends of Five Rivers, a nature center near Albany.
Lowery said he personally favors the price approach.
"If we do not put a price on carbon emissions and make polluters pay one way or another," he said, "then the only thing that is going to get done are things that white middle-class Americans do voluntarily, and that won't be enough."
Push for carbon tax reaches both chambers of statehouse
