Prof. James Coleman Quoted by Star Tribune About Effectiveness of Minneapolis Carbon Fee

Professor James Coleman was quoted in the Minnesota Star Tribune about the effectiveness of the city of Minneapolis charging a carbon fee. Carbon fees work by incentivizing companies to voluntarily reduce emissions to avoid paying the extra cost. The city began charging its largest carbon polluting facilities for their annual emissions in July, with a total of 65 facilities becoming subject to the fee starting next year. But some experts say the fee is too small to significantly cut pollution and will have little effect on climate change. The office of Mayor Jacob Frey estimates that Minneapolis’ new carbon fee will reduce annual emissions by 1,000 tons. That’s compared to 3.6 million tons of CO2 the city released into the atmosphere last year. Prof. Coleman said that there is little consensus over how high a carbon fee should be. He said estimates of the social cost of carbon — how much financial damage is caused by climate change, essentially — have varied anywhere from $1 to $500 per ton. The Obama administration, for example, estimated the social cost of carbon at about $43 per ton, while the first Trump administration put that number closer to $3 per ton.