Carbon Taxes Won't Reduce Fossil Fuel Consumption or Fix Climate Change - That's Why Exxon Mobil and the Industry Support Them

Today the Climate Leadership Council, a conservative-leaning policy group that supports a carbon tax proposal as a solution to climate change, announced its list of founding members. The list includes multinational corporations, nonprofit organizations and notable political and industry figures. In response, Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter issued the following statement:

"If Exxon Mobil and many of the world's largest fossil fuel corporations are lining up behind a carbon tax, you can be certain such a plan will have zero effect on their ability to maintain business as usual. That means continued oil and gas extraction, continued air and water pollution, and a continuing steady march toward irrevocable climate chaos. This plan being promoted by notable conservatives and their industry allies is particularly absurd: It would scrap many existing pollution controls - common sense rules that tackle carbon emissions at their source - in favor of a market-based scheme that would push added costs onto consumers, not polluters.

"Broadly speaking, there is no evidence that carbon taxes reduce carbon emissions. Many tax advocates point to a plan instituted in British Columbia in 2008 as evidence of the method's success in lowering emissions. In fact, carbon emissions actually increased in B.C. under the plan. When carbon taxes increase costs on fossil fuel corporations, those costs are simply passed down to consumers at the gas pump or store shelves. Only cutting carbon emissions at their source - by keeping fossil fuels in the ground and transitioning rapidly to clean, renewable energy - will quickly reduce emissions and effectively tackle the worst effects of impending climate chaos."