We suggest a tax on carbon dioxide in which all the proceeds collected by the government would be returned to Americans each year.

— Keith Crane and James Bartis, Washington Post, 2007

“THERE IS A BROAD CONSENSUS in favor of a carbon tax everywhere except on Capitol Hill, where the ‘T word’ is anathema.” So says the conservative American Enterprise Institute. The conflict between the T-word and the consensus creates a tension at the heart of energy policy. Capitol Hill politicians have blocked the world’s best energy policy with anti-tax slogans.