Comments on: The Green Dividend: How to End Our Fossil Fuel Addiction Without Pain

By: The Green Dividend « Growth Reconsidered

The Green Dividend « Growth Reconsidered — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:22:35 +0000

[...] 14, 2010 Al Lewis has an idea for reducing carbon emissions in a politically feasible way. The “green dividend” in concept is very simple as applied to gasoline. At the beginning of [...]

By: peterk

peterk — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:16:08 +0000

The Green Dividend is to a Gas Tax what Flintstones are to cod liver oil. You just have to look at the tepid response to cap-and-trade to see what happens when you don’t package things well

By: The Complete ThinkOOB Stimulus Economics Plan | ThinkOOB

The Complete ThinkOOB Stimulus Economics Plan | ThinkOOB — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:36:04 +0000

[...] also a myth in the other direction, that “going green” is somehow very expensive. As the “ The Green Dividend/ posting shows, it is essentially free to gently but firmly reconfigure society to use less [...]

By: Charles Beall

Charles Beall — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:24:10 +0000

Al Lewis for President in 2012!

By: alewis

alewis — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:34:48 +0000

Littauer Gal’s point can be extended. I hope readers are noticing that the three sectors which have caused the most problems in this economy are also by far the three most heavily subsidized sectors — fossil fuels, housing, and health care. Coincidence? I think not.

By: littauergal

littauergal — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:30:35 +0000

Obama isn’t getting this. Today he is proposing a massively subsidized commitment to alternative energy, which will never be competitive with what you point out is the massively subsidized fossil fuel industry. Economist2B has it right but no one is listening other than “Ec” graduate students like me.

By: alewis

alewis — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:14:42 +0000

Oh, good point — need to clarify something in order to prevent that. The tax is the same for every gas station and is added at the point of sale. So gas stations which negotiate a better deal with their source of supply will still ahve lower prices. You’re right, I think — if the tax were caibrated to keep gasoline at exactly $4 there would be no incentive for stations to negotiate deals with distritors

By: Terry

Terry — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:37:51 +0000

But if the government states that “gas will be sold at $4 a gallon” the distributors are going to sell it at $4 a gallon thus eliminating your tax base.

By: economist2b

economist2b — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:47:47 +0000

the whole alternative energy industry is in danger here because the Hotelling Point, that’s where the price of renewable fuel finally gets lower than the price of fossil fuel, never seems to get any closer. The price of regular energy will fall over time, like it has been since the Greeks lit their lamps with olive oil. And oil costs less today than it did in 1980 not even adjustsed for inflation. The answer in Washington seems to be to subsidize alternative energy rather than make regular energy cost more, to get to the Hotelling Point. That is expensive and inefficient

By: Warren

Warren — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:07:34 +0000

I just bought a hybrid this summer — paid a premium over retail to get it because gasoline was going to be $5. How stupid was that? People are going to switch back to SUVs. What you are descirbing is an “energy policy” which this country hasn’t had since Carter.