New York mayor backs national pollution tax

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday called for a national pollution tax that he said would be the best way to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and fight global warming.

Speaking in Seattle, he said the biggest obstacles to the plan, or to doing anything to slow climate change, are the intransigence and partisanship of Washington, D.C.

"There is no substitute for federal leadership," Bloomberg said in a speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors climate summit. "Leadership is about facing facts, making hard decisions and having the independence and courage to do the right thing, even when it's not easy or popular."

He told reporters later that his criticism is aimed at both Democrats and Republicans, the Bush administration and Congress.

Bloomberg has been talked about as a potential independent candidate for president. He didn't address that directly Friday but said there are already plenty of candidates in the race, and they all need to be pressed to give detailed environmental plans.

Bloomberg's plan would put a price on pollution. (He mentioned $15 for every ton of greenhouse-gas emissions a company releases.) Linked to that tax increase, though, would be a cut in the federal payroll tax.

"Employment is good, pollution is bad," he said. "Why shouldn't we lower the cost of the good and raise the cost of the bad?"

Bloomberg's plan is an alternative to the so-called cap-and-trade system to control pollution. Cap-and-trade sets limits on emissions that get tighter over time.

Companies either have to stay below the limits or buy credits representing someone else's pollution reductions. Bloomberg said that plan is more complicated than his and is open to abuses and manipulation through congressional exemptions.

The Sightline Institute, formerly Northwest Environment Watch, says Bloomberg is telling only part of the story about cap-and-trade.

In another version of the plan, the federal government would auction off credits, said senior analyst Eric de Place. That would put a firm limit on pollution — unlike Bloomberg's carbon tax — and raise money for other environmental programs, de Place said.

Still, the green-leaning Sightline said parts of the New York mayor's speech were brilliant, such as when he said green energy is the "oil gusher of the 21st century."

"Bloomberg's speech was pretty exciting for us because he spoke boldly and realistically about the kind of concrete solutions — such as putting a price tag on carbon — that Sightline has been talking up for a long time," said Anna Fahey, a representative of the group. "We need these optimistic messages, we need to imagine ourselves leading on this stuff."

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said the mayors' group had endorsed cap-and-trade in the past but would look at Bloomberg's proposal as well.

Dennis Walaker, mayor of Fargo, N.D., was doubtful Congress would pass anything like Bloomberg's proposal, which he said sounds like a "no-politics-involved, straight idea."

"Until the administration takes [global warming] seriously, nothing is going to happen," Walaker said. "Congress is in a do-nothing period."

Staff reporters Sharon Pian Chan and Warren Cornwall contributed to this story. David Postman: 360-236-8267 or dpostman@seattletimes.com