Environmental Whack-A-Mole (Hawaii: State Of Clean Energy)

Carbon Cash-Back for the Win.  The host for this show is Mitch Ewan.  The guest is Matthew Geyer.   In the next legislative session a Carbon Cashback bill will be introduced. We discuss how this legislation would help. Carbon Cashback imposes a tax on all fossil fuels imported into Hawaii. The policy would increase the barrel tax rate for each fossil fuel at the desired carbon tax rateb thereby eliminating the need for additional bureaucracy.  The government collects these additional barrel tax revenues and returns them to Hawaii residents. Every adult receives the same amount regardless of income, and every minor receives a half share. The University of Hawaii has conducted two carbon tax studies that analyzed policies essentially equivalent to the carbon cashback policy described above.  These studies found: 1. A state-level carbon tax set at about $50/metric ton of CO2 would reduce Hawai‘i’s cumulative GHG emissions by 10% over twenty years. 2. Tax revenues given back to households in equal shares benefits lower-income households more than proportionately. The ThinkTech YouTube Playlist for this show is https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQpkwcNJny6nXB3m62UWYrdK3lYBRDrQ9 Please visit our ThinkTech website at https://thinktechhawaii.com and see our Think Tech Advisories at https://thinktechadvisories.blogspot.com.