Now, how to reduce CO2;
1. Fund a new generation of nuclear reactors, breeder reactors with fuel reprocessing to back them up. Lease them to power utilities for cost recovery.
2. Fund a series of experimental thorium energy amplifier reactors, with a goal to make this the dominant energy technology in 20 years.
I've no real problem with either of these first two issues, I'm not sure why we should be leasing them back to private industry to sell the power, that seems like a corporate welfare system, that I'd rather not engage in, they are historically difficult teats to withdraw once industry (and congressmen) begin suckling. We should probably explore all of our options here to include a quasi-governmental corporation perhaps in conjunction with the Corps of Engineers.
3. Continue to fund ITER.
I am not opposed to the ITER. I, of course, am not saying to throw money at anything, but I believe the US share of ITER's annual budget is around 10% (currently in the neighborhood of $150-200M). I see no reason not to engage in further participation provided the research is progressing acceptably towards the goal of commercial fusion power production.
4. Fund cutting-edge new fusion technology such as the Buzzard Polywell device.
Rather than specifying any single energy research and development program, how about providing a more securely funded energy research and development agency that will coordinate and fund out of its own annual budget a range of energy production, storage, distribution, and application research, with dedicated nuclear and alternative divisions of research. We might even combine steps 3 & 4 into one step.
5. Mandate full electrification of class-1 railroads by 2032. Provide tax credits to defray this cost.
not sure of your reasoning for distinction. Why not mandate 10% switch over within 10 years, 50% within 20 and 100% within 30? Require it for all railroad classes. I like the tax credit defrayment, and would like to see a similar defrayment on individual passenger fare, as well, as part of a means to incentivise and offset rail travel inconveniences and costs.
6. Fund all of the above entirely on a new tax on all coal extracted from the ground, and all oil that gets imported.
(BTW, the effect of 6 will be to make China pay for much of this, as they NEED our coal.)
We probably need to examine and discuss in detail the revenue side of carbon taxes and how these are to be used to both keep the taxation system progressive and provide some short term transitional investment funds for projects like this. Perhaps we need something like a Carbon Bank to accumulate carbon taxes seperate from general taxation revenues, and then to disperse low-income offset funds and make low-interest loans/investments into appropriate transitional technologies and infrastructure.
It has to be remembered that the purpose of a carbon tax is to eliminate the use of carbon fuels, not provide a sustained new source of revenue to play with and fund programs that are going to need long term investment. A carbon bank would also help stretch these funds as the low interest loans/investments are paid back intothe bank.
