"For a New America"

Governor Jack plans to institute more restrictions on corporations regarding their carbon dioxide emissions in the form of a vague carbon tax. He intends to empower the EPA and place a $10 tax on corporations for every metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions they create, but refrains from detailing the impact that this tax will have. He does not include data regarding the degree to which corporations produce carbon dioxide, and therefore neglects to provide a reference point for understanding the potential effects this tax could cause.

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American Electric Power, a large electrical utility company that provides 5 million people with electricity throughout 11 US states produced 69 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2018. They had a net income of $1.924 billion dollars for the same year. Governor Jack’s proposed carbon tax would have forced AEP to pay almost $690 million more dollars in taxes, which would have reduced their net income by approximately 36%, a truly ridiculous amount. Furthermore, AEP has actually reduced their CO2 emissions drastically since 2000. They have lowered their emissions by almost 60%, from 167 million metric tons in the year 2000, to 69 million in 2018. But even with their steady efforts to reduce their emissions, Jack’s carbon tax would still impose a huge penalty on their earnings and potentially reduce their ability to provide their customers, millions of working Americans, with a basic utility.

 

The institution of the carbon tax, and the effects perpetrated by it on major corporations are illustrative of the trend that our economy would follow. Governor Jack’s platform on the environment is based on an extreme concept that has no realistic basis and has the potential to radically destabilize and harm our currently flourishing economy. Rather than penalize corporations for producing carbon dioxide, we instead need to incentivize companies to invest in alternate forms of energy, and reward corporations for making efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions