Thanks to Neil Reynolds for supporting a carbon tax

Neil Reynolds of the Globe and Mail has written another column (Pointless to Rush Carbon Emissions Plan, July 2, 2008) against doing something about climate change. He has tried to use a paper by William Nordhaus to argue against the Green Shift plan. What Reynolds has, strangely, not appreciated is that Nordhaus is in favour of a carbon tax! Nordhaus uses an economic model to try to guess the optimal carbon tax given certain assumptions about economic growth and greenhouse gas goals. Here is a quote from his paper (from the Major Results and Conclusions section):

"...the 2010 carbon prices associated with CO2 doubling and 2½ ° C cases are $40 and $42 per ton carbon"

What he is saying is that his computer model gives the result that if, by 2100 with certain assumptions, you want to limit the increase in CO2 concentration to a doubling, or the rise in temperature to 2½ ° C, not very ambitious goals according to scientists, the optimal carbon tax now should be about $40/tonne. That's coincidentally what the Green Shift proposes.

Mr. Reynolds, do you support the Green Shift's carbon tax now?