Ted Halstead

Ted Halstead argues in the following viewpoint that pollution taxes would protect the environment by encouraging businesses and individuals to generate less pollution. Furthermore, the revenue generated from pollution taxes would reduce or eliminate payroll taxes, boost wages, and create jobs, he maintains. Halstead, a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute and a Montgomery Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, is the founder and president emeritus of Redefining Progress, a public policy think tank in San Francisco.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. How much new revenue would be generated by carbon- emissions permits, as cited by Halstead?
2. How would the process of implementing pollution taxes and phasing out payroll taxes make the entire tax system more progressive, in the author’s opinion?
3. Which program should receive the revenues...