With a major new tax study on the subject well underway, a far-reaching carbon tax may be on the horizon and would affect everything from home mortgage deductions to urban development patterns,
Fox News reported.
The tax study is sponsored by the U.S. Treasury and is looking at slowing climate change by the implementation of a green tax code, which would ripple across the entire economic and social landscape and possibly contain new carbon taxes.
The $1.5 million study being conducted by the National Academies of Science is examining the basic building blocks of the tax system through the prism of the levels of greenhouse gas produced, according to Fox News. A new green code could affect deductions and allowances for energy production, home mortgage deduction, investment tax credit, and tax provisions that affect urban development, agriculture, forestry, and other industry. The study won’t be ready until next year.
Originally slated for completion in September of this year, its publication has since been postponed until the first quarter of next year.
The study could allow a way to comparison shop tax levels and incentives for a swath of economic and social activities based on climate effects.
Basing a system on the effects of the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions is problematic, according to Ken Green, an environmental expert at the American Enterprise Institute, who told Fox News that the study appears to be “another effort aimed at paving the way for weaving carbon taxes into tax reform.”
Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin called the study “a waste of money.”
“They are simply trying to bypass the people’s representatives and use technocrats to achieve their agenda,” he told Fox News.
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