New Center Offers Clean Energy Plan to Counter Radical Green New Deal And Reckless Climate Change Denial

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The New Center?an organization focused on creating the space for a political center in today's America? released a new policy paper entitled "The Economics of Energy: Shaping the Market to Create a Clean Energy Future."

The following two things are true about burning fossil fuels:

1. It is warming our planet, changing our climate, and posing a growing threat to the environment and economies around the world.
2. It is the foundation of the global economy, and over the last century has driven the most significant increase in technological innovation, prosperity, and human well-being in the history of the world.

This is the tension at the center of America and the world's inability to meaningfully confront and combat climate change. In this paper, The New Center explores the economic forces and incentives that created our fossil-based economy, and how we can harness those same forces to unleash the potential of cleaner energy and climate change mitigation technologies.

The New Center believes that there are two levers Washington could pull to reshape markets, incentivize clean energy investment, and create costs for climate-altering policies:

Carbon Tax and Dividend

Washington could implement a revenue-neutral carbon tax that would signal to polluters that their emissions come with a price tag. To achieve revenue neutrality, Congress could distribute a dividend to American households and communities dependent on fossil fuels to offset rising prices associated with the tax. Alternatively, Congress could employ a tax shift and reduce certain federal taxes (i.e. income taxes, payroll taxes, etc.).

Next Generation Clean Energy Tax Credits

Rather than prolonging or increasing tax credits that benefit only specific clean energy technologies like solar and wind, next-generation tax credits should be designed to favor promising, emerging technologies over maturing ones. By developing a system that awards tax credits based on whether they achieve a low-carbon power system, any clean energy technology that meets specific performance standards would be eligible to receive the credit.

The full paper is available for download at www.newcenter.org

About The New Center

American politics is broken, with the far left and far right making it increasingly impossible to govern. This will not change until a viable center emerges with an assertive agenda that appeals to the vast majority of the American people.

This is the mission of The New Center, which aims to establish the intellectual basis for a viable political center in today's America.

We create and promote ideas, news coverage, and commentary that helps Americans see common-sense solutions to the problems we face.

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SOURCE The New Center