Creative taxation for emissions reduction

Al Gore
recently made brave and substantive proposals for an immediate freeze on carbon dioxide emissions and elimination of payroll taxes in favor of pollution taxes - both are not politically easy, but are imaginative and at the scale required to solve the problem.

In an hour-long speech at New York University Law School, Gore, called for bipartisan action and framed the pursuit of renewable energy as an economic and national security issue as well as an environmental imperative.

"When we make big mistakes in America, it is usually because the people have not been given an honest accounting of the choices before us," Gore said. "It also is often because too many members of both parties who knew better did not have the courage to do better."

While the Bush administration has acknowledged the effects of global warming on the environment, President Bush has rejected mandatory controls on carbon dioxide, the gas blamed for the phenomenon. Bush also refused to accept the Kyoto treaty, which called for mandatory reductions of greenhouse gases among the signing nations.

Gore's documentary film, "An Inconvenient Truth," was released in 2006 and has become one of the highest-grossing documentaries, while the companion book has become a national best-seller.

"We can change this by inventing and manufacturing new solutions to stop global warming right here in America," he said. He also reported that venture capitalists are eager to fund effective technologies to cut greenhouse gases.

Policy proposals Gore suggests for reducing global warming include:

An immediate freeze on carbon dioxide emissions. Debates on the matter represented "a delusional and reckless approach."

A retooling of U.S. auto companies to manufacture hybrid vehicles instead of trucks and SUVs that could save thousands of jobs at the US car manufacturers.

Greater reliance on ethanol, wind and solar energy.

Elimination of payroll taxes in favor of pollution taxes. "Instead of discouraging businesses from hiring more employees, it would discourage business from producing more pollution," Gore said.