Uncommon Sense

Just eight months ago, Congressman John Dingell, the Michigan Democrat and close friend of Detroit who heads up the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was expressing serious doubts about the consensus view on global warming. Now, he's proposing what is widely considered, (for all its clear advantages in curbing CO2 emissions), to be an instrument of political suicide -- namely, a carbon tax.

As David Leonhardt reports in the New York Times today, "no elected official of any significance," until now, has dared to suggest a carbon tax -- and certainly none of the leading presidential candidates. So what is going on, Leonhardt asks: Is Chairman Dingell proposing a carbon tax only because he knows it will go down in flames? Or is he a real convert who honestly believes, as he opined in the Washington Post recently, that a tax on carbon is the only way "to get the emissions reductions we need"? It's a tough call, but in that same Op-Ed piece, Dingell is careful to declare his independence from both parties on the issue:

I don't expect to overcome ideological Republican opposition to all forms of taxation, but if CEOs, economists, environmentalists and citizens speak out, we could effect real change. I don't pretend to speak for my party on this; I'm trying to speak to common sense and experience.

Leonhardt sounds cautiously optimistic that Dingell means what he says. In either case -- whether Dingell is sincere or engaged in some political ruse -- he notes that the Congressman "has a really good argument."