Trying to find areas of agreement in the platforms of the Democratic and Republican platforms is no easy task, and taxing carbon is certainly not that area, the Brookings Institution pointed out in blog post Sunday. “For those who say there are no differences between the Republican and Democratic parties, just read the platforms side-by-side. In many instances, the differences are—as Donald Trump would say, yuuuge,” according to the editor’s note to the post from William Galston, a senior fellow for governance studies at Brookings.
According to the post, “When it comes to Republicans and the environment, black is the new green.” The Republican platform calls for ending moratoriums and bans to fossil fuel production on federal lands and states that a GOP president would restructure the Environmental Protection Agency as a commission. The platform also “unequivocally” opposes carbon taxes, the blog post notes.
The Democrats, in contrast, voted Monday evening to approve a platform stating that “Democrats believe that carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases should be priced to reflect their negative externalities, and to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy and help meet our climate goals.”
“To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that the platform of a major American political party has advocated taxing greenhouse gas emissions,” the post says. Galston added: “Once this plank of the Democratic platform becomes widely known, Republicans are likely to attack it as yet another example of Democrats’ propensity to raise taxes.”