Statesman George Shultz, veteran of President Ronald Reagan’s administration and advocate of a cap and dividend plan, spoke at the Fiduciary Investors Symposium at Stanford University where he extolled the carbon tax. “It works,” he said. “Companies whose names you would recognize have signed up for a revenue-neutral carbon tax…More companies see it as better than the regulatory hand.”
He also praised how the marketplace has boosted clean energy, spurring technology and lowering costs. “I’ve had solar panels on my house for 10 years and have long-since paid for them from money saved,” he said. “And they produce more electricity than my electric car uses, so the cost of my fuel is zero. What’s not to like?” He also reminisced about Reagan’s effort to address the hole in the ozone, which led to the successful Montreal Protocol. “Reagan put his arm around the disbelievers,” he said, without “demolishing” those opponents.
Shultz is the co-author of the Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends.