Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/135388
Logbook Report: Carbon tax could hurt trucking Workers in "energy-intensive industries" such as truck transportation "would tend to experience comparatively large losses in income under a carbon tax because demand for their products (and services) would decline," says a new analysis. A bill proposing a tax on carbon dioxide emissions floated earlier this year in the U.S. Senate – opposed by most Republicans and some Democrats – subsequently was analyzed by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The analysis was requested by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Depending on how the tax revenues are used, however, losses for energyintensive industries could be offset in Text INFO to 205-289-3555 or visit www.ovdinfo.com Hoffco_OVD0312_PG036.indd 1 Logbook_0613.indd 21 different ways. The report primarily concerns itself with different scenarios for various carbon tax revenue uses and their potential impacts on the economy and federal budget: • If used to reduce the federal deficit solely, such a tax initially would harm the economy, increasing prices for consumers in a regressive fashion, with lower-income individuals affected disproportionately. It would, however, be effective in reducing federal budget deficits, which could hold long-term positive outcomes for the economy. • Used to reduce marginal tax rates for individual and business incomes in what the CBO calls a "tax swap," however, the tax's effect on economic output would be muted. "The net effect of a tax swap on output," the report notes, "would depend on the relative sizes of the loss in output caused by the carbon tax itself (including both primary costs and tax-interaction costs) and the gain in output caused by the reduction in existing marginal tax rates." Some analyses, the CBO notes, have concluded that "a tax swap could lead to a net increase in output" for the economy. • Distributing revenues to groups affected the most, the study found, would hold little use for minimizing the broader economic impacts and actually could have the effect of incentivizing greater fossil-fuel use. To download the report, go to www. overdriveonline.com/files/2013/05/ May-2013-CBO-Carbon-Tax-Report. pdf. – Todd Dills 2/27/13 June 2013 | Overdrive 9:3021 | AM 5/28/13 10:20 PM