The Political Climate: an ongoing commentary on the NH Primary and Climate Change

Senator Hillary Clinton spoke to students at UNH yesterday and teased the crowd by saying that next week in New Hampshire and Iowa she will unveil her “comprehensive agenda energy agenda on how to combat global warming as president.”  Have no fear, TPC will be there.

On global warming, Clinton stressed the importance of bipartisan cooperation:

“This is not an issue that should be Democratic or Republican.  This is an American issue.  This is an international issue.  I intend to get back into international negotiations including China and India, creating a ‘climate’ in the world where we start addressing this.”

Hopefully she will elaborate in New Hampshire next week about what this global ‘climate’ for negotiations would look like.

TPC also came across an interesting piece that deals with international climate negotiations.  ”One Answer to Global Warming: A New Tax” ran in the business section of the New York Times in September.  The article has Primary ramifications because of its author, Gregory Mankiw, who a Harvard economics professor and advisor to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

Mankiw, who supports a carbon tax over a cap and trade system to reduce carbon emissions on a global scale, wrote:

“Among policy wonks like me, there is a broad consensus. The scientists tell us that world temperatures are rising because humans are emitting carbon into the atmosphere. Basic economics tells us that when you tax something, you normally get less of it. So if we want to reduce global emissions of carbon, we need a global carbon tax.” 

Mankiw’s support for a carbon tax is at odds with what Romney has said in New Hampshire, but his opinion of a cap and trade system may provide insight as to why Romney is reluctant to commit to capping carbon.  Mankiw writes that “allocating carbon allowances based on population alone would create a system in which the United States, with its higher standard of living, would buy allowances from China. American voters are not going to embrace a system of higher energy prices, coupled with a large transfer of national income to the Chinese.”

Maybe Chris Dodd has been tapping Mankiw’s phone because Dodd is the only candidate in either party advocating for a tax on carbon.