Update: I posted the article below in July of 2014. Since then, the idea that a price must be put on carbon pollution, as sensible as that idea is, has faded from much of public discourse. As the reality of climate change continues to sink in, the necessity of cutting carbon pollution will almost certainly rise to the surface again. It seems inevitable to me that eventually this great country will wake up to the need to limit the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and will enact legislation that will do that.
What follows below is how I saw things in 2014. For newer views on pricing carbon, see the Carbon Tax Center's website at https://www.carbontax.org/ Citizens' Climate Lobby continues to fight effectively for Congressional action to address climate change. More at https://citizensclimatelobby.org/
CCL just released a report of a major study that explains why the concept is gaining traction; it can drastically cut carbon dioxide emissions without harming the economy. For more, see http://citizensclimatelobby.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/REMI-carbon-tax-report-62141.pdf
In late June, 2014, with over 600 other members of the Citizens’
Climate Lobby (CCL), I was in DC to
lobby Congress to support a steadily increasing revenue-neutral carbon
tax. We met with over 500 Congressional
offices.
A revenue-neutral carbon tax meshes with both liberal and conservative agendas. For an example of recent Republican support, see http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/opinion/sunday/lessons-for-climate-change-in-the-2008-recession.html?_r=0 
