Presidential candidate John Delaney released a $4 trillion plan Thursday to fight climate change that calls for a carbon tax, contrasting himself with follow Democrats who have not endorsed carbon pricing.
“We need a real plan to hit our goals, and we have to listen to actual scientists,” Delaney said. “This is a real plan that all Americans can support.”
A former congressman from Maryland, Delaney co-sponsored a bipartisan carbon tax and dividend bill last year that would return the revenue to Americans to offset higher energy prices. His new proposal is also for a carbon tax and dividend.
But other Democratic candidates who’ve released climate change plans, such as Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, have not included a carbon tax in their proposals.
[Read more: Long shot John Delaney says fellow 2020 Democrats are ‘running on things that aren’t real solutions’]
Delaney’s proposal comes after Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Ind., recently proposed a carbon tax and dividend.
While economists view a carbon tax as the most efficient way to address climate change, the policy has suffered recent setbacks globally and in the states. Some climate hawks view carbon pricing as politically toxic. Some progressives consider it insufficient and are distrustful of oil and gas companies that have endorsed carbon tax and dividend proposals.
[Related: Oil giants BP and Shell pledge $1M each to Republican-backed carbon tax]
Delaney, a centrist, did not directly attack his competitors in announcing his plan, which has an overall goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. Net-zero, or carbon neutrality, refers to the process of eliminating as many carbon emissions as are produced within the country.
But Delaney is skeptical of the progressive “Green New Deal,” which does not endorse or reject carbon pricing, but calls for major spending on clean energy development, government-provided healthcare, and guaranteed jobs.
“We can’t play politics with climate change,” Michael Hopkins, a Delaney spokesman, told the Washington Examiner, when asked how his climate plan distinguishes from others. “It’s an issue that requires real leadership. We need serious proposals that can make it through Congress.”
Delaney’s proposed carbon tax would start at $15 per metric ton and increase by $10 each year, which he says would reduce carbon emissions 90% by 2050.
Taxpayers receiving a dividend check from the tax would have the option of investing the money in a savings account for education or a retirement account.
Delaney also proposes to invest $5 billion a year to reduce the cost of carbon capture technology that can remove emissions from coal plants and industrial facilities. He makes special emphasis of “direct air capture” that would suck carbon dioxide directly from the sky.
And he plans to build a $20 billion pipeline, which he dubs a “carbon throughway,” that could transport the captured carbon to other sites so it can be reused for commercial purposes, such as assisting with oil production, a process known as enhanced oil recovery.
To be sure, Delaney’s plan does share common characteristics with other presidential contenders’ plans.
Like Inslee before him, Delaney proposes a fivefold increase in research and development spending on clean energy, aiming to bolster energy storage, battery performance, renewable energy, energy efficiency, advanced nuclear reactors, and more.
