Liberal Talk Radio

Brad Plumer wonders if Rep. John Dingell’s support for a carbon tax is a bluff. In other words, Dingell’s constituents are auto workers, and he’s skeptical of climate change proposals, so he’s putting the carbon tax up there for the Machievellian purpose of seeing it fail and saying, “I told you so.”

But Isn’t the Occam’s Razor answer that he’s just trying to move the conversation away from increased CAFE standards, which would disproportionately hurt the US auto companies whose districts he represents?

If he gets a carbon tax passed, sure, the price of gas goes up, but it gets spread across all industries and products. It also puts the onus on consumers to decide whether or not they still want to buy that sexy Ford Explorer. Whereas CAFE standards require that the auto industry go in and re-design the Explorer itself (or stop selling it).