Purpose
- Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.
- Investigates the effect of the global financial system and/or the monetary system in fostering a sustainable economy.
- Investigates causes tending to destroy or impair the free-market system.
- Explores and develops market-based solutions.
Summary
In 2025, the Pricing Carbon Initiative (PCI) will continue to build support for bipartisan carbon pricing policy solutions, designed to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, by fostering understanding and cooperation between a wide range of organizations and opinion leaders. That work will include in-person and virtual Pricing Carbon Dialogues, public forums, a special project that focuses in carbon border measures, and disseminating information via PCI's website.
Description
The Pricing Carbon Dialogues:
- On February 28, 2025 we hosted our annual in-person CHR dialogue at Resources for the Future headquarters. A month into the second Trump Administration, attendance was nevertheless strong with both virtual and in person engagement. Participants remarked afterwards about how wonderful it was to have this focused discussion with others, saying their spirits were lifted. In terms of content, we had two panels on the topic of state-level carbon pricing, and on the national/international intersection of carbon border measures. We held two keynotes, with the first featuring Gina McCarthy in her new role at the head of America is Still In, and the second featuring two former Republican Congressmen, Ambassador Francis Rooney and Rep. Bob Inglis, both of whom were lead sponsors of carbon pricing legislation. We held several breakout sessions, and shared back key observations for the group, wrapping up with a happy hour.
- On October 20, 2025 PCI co-hosted a Chatham House Rule dialogue with RFF titled “The Fate of Carbon Pricing in Canada”. Recognizing that many Americans, even policy professionals, thought that Canada had gotten rid of all their carbon pricing policy, we thought it important to prune this misconception in the bud. The reality is that Canada retains its industrial carbon price, which is responsible for 3-5x the emissions reductions of the consumer price, which Prime Minister Carney did indeed zero out in March of this year. We had an all-Canada panel that included Barry Rabe as moderator (and a resident scholar in Waterloo, Canada for the academic term), Dale Beugin of the Canadian Climate Institute, and Debora Van Nijnatten at Wilfrid Laurier University. Caroline Brouillette, Executive Director of the Climate Action Network, Canada, was scheduled to speak, but had to withdraw at the last minute due to a medical issue. 47 people attended the dialogue.
Public Forums:
- On June 17, 2025 PCI co-hosted a public forum with C2ES featuring recently retired Governor Jay Inslee of Washington State. Governor Inslee generously gave us a full hour of his time, though 45 minutes was scheduled. He addressed a number of questions from both our discussants and the gathered audience, which included two questions from reporters at the New York Times and at S&P Global. A “happy warrior”, Governor Inslee expressed that this is a great time to be in the climate fight by invoking Winston Churchill during the Blitz: these are times of enormous consequence, so our actions really matter. He displayed impressive versatility in his ability to speak to a general audience, while also periodically demonstrating his ability to get into the technical nitty gritty. The discussants on the panel did a great job of extending the conversation deeper in these directions. Shuting Pomerleau brought in discussion of the Foreign Pollution Fee Act in the Senate specifically, which prompted the Governor to robustly reject the notion of a border carbon measure without a domestic price. David Bookbinder asked about the possibility of these policies in other states, and sounded a confident note that there would be little long-run success for many Trump executive orders on the basis of their poorly thought through framing. His deeper concern was the gutting of career civil servants at the EPA and other agencies. Alex DeGolia drew the Governor out on the possible linkage of WA’s Cap and Invest to systems in CA and Ontario, and pointed out that if the 24 states in the US Climate Alliance fulfilled their commitments fully that would account for half of the total emissions mitigation necessary to meet the US's national 2030 NDC. Recording: https://pricingcarbon.org/2025/07/a-public-forum-with-governor-jay-inslee/
Blogs and a Podcast:
We published five blogs over the past year (two in 2024, but not described previously), and Danny was the featured guest on an episode of RFF’s podcast, Resources Radio. These blogs assist in building and maintaining our network by introducing and weaving together concepts that we encounter in our dialogues. They help new members of our network get up to speed quickly, and provide long-time members of our network with a new way of looking at familiar challenges. Not only do they support our network, they support our dialogues as points of reference that help moderators connect topics at hand to previously discussed topics, providing tangible through-lines for our work. Finally, they help establish PCI as a source of thought leadership on carbon pricing, which has led to several invitations to moderate and participate in panels. The blogs published over this period are briefly linked and described below:
- “The US is an Island Alone without a Carbon Price”, published Nov 12, 2024. This blog includes a table summarizing the carbon pricing status of every developed economy, as ranked by the World Bank. The US is the only such economy without a federal carbon price, a fact that we have repeatedly brought up in our dialogues and public communications. Dr. Catherine Wolfram recently mentioned this in an appearance on PBS. Link: https://pricingcarbon.org/2024/11/the-us-is-an-island-alone-without-a-carbon-price/
- “Fourth Generation Carbon Prices”, published Nov. 26, 2024. - This blog highlights that recent carbon pricing policymaking has shifted in ways substantive enough to draw a clear line separating current efforts from previous generations of policy design. This blog has been particularly useful for getting new additions to our network up to speed. Link: https://pricingcarbon.org/2024/11/fourth-generation-carbon-prices/
- “The Largest Carbon Pricing Program You’ve Never Heard Of”, published April 2, 2025. Co-written with one of our long-time participants, an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, this blog is both a pilot for a new way of engaging members of our network, as well as expanding the portfolio of topics we cover in our dialogues. This continues work highlighted in our previous report, which we began with a 4-blog series explaining how we view carbon pricing. Link: https://pricingcarbon.org/2025/04/the-largest-carbon-pricing-program-youve-never-heard-of/
- “Reserved: Carbon Pricing and the Dollar’s Special Status”, published April 28, 2025. This blog made the case that the dollar's special status as the world's reserve currency is a significant block to carbon pricing policy in the US. It is a provocative thesis, and has proved useful for getting even long-suffering carbon pricers to approach old challenges with new thinking, and fostering dialogue. Link: https://pricingcarbon.org/2025/04/reserved-carbon-pricing-and-the-dollars-special-status/
- “Come for the Carbon, Stay for the Money”, published July 9, 2025. This blog on the stickiness of carbon pricing policy once passed was inspired by a question Danny was asked in the RFF podcast. It expands on some of the ideas outlined in the April 28 blog that further explore why the US is alone among developed economies for its lack of a carbon price. Link: https://pricingcarbon.org/2025/07/come-for-the-carbon-stay-for-the-money/
The podcast episode of Resources Radio appeared on July 17, 2025 and was titled “Carbon Pricing is Dead. Long Live Carbon Pricing!”. Danny and the host provided an overview of carbon pricing at the state, federal, and international levels of governance, and noted the role the EU CBAM is currently playing in driving international ambition, among other topics. Podcast link: https://pricingcarbon.org/2025/07/podcast-carbon-pricing-is-dead-long-live-carbon-pricing/
Purpose
1) PCI focuses on policies that correct the economic distortions resulting from the free dumping of carbon pollution into Earth's atmosphere and oceans.
2) While focusing on U.S. domestic legislation, we address design elements that transparently link with a global carbon pricing system and foster global economic sustainability.
3) A robust economic consensus suggests the need to price in the externalities associated with fossil fuel burning. Otherwise, the costs of climate change threaten to undermine global economic stability.
4) Policies to price carbon pollution take advantage of existing energy markets to correct price signals in the use of fossil fuels that ignore the social costs of carbon. Negative externalities not included in prevailing models, such as the acidification of oceans, must be included in the mix. Pricing carbon emissions can correct the distortion in energy markets whereby fossil fuels are favored over low-carbon alternatives.
Scope
The scope of this project is national, but given the ongoing unfavorable political dynamics in Washington DC, we are also remaining attentive to international, state-based, and various legal initiatives that could be important forerunners of much-needed national pricing carbon solutions.
Amount Approved
$40,000.00
on 2/5/2025
(Check sent: 2/12/2025)
