Climate activists have found a new way to force us to pay more for energy.
New York and Vermont passed laws that will raise the price of oil, gas, and electricity by taxing the past.
New York’s new law demands fossil fuel companies pay $75 billion for carbon emissions dating back to the year 2000. Other Democrat-controlled states plan to follow suit.
In my new video, Travis Fisher, energy director at the Cato Institute, argues that taxing the past is wrong: “I’ve been filling up my gas tank for 25 years. Will they go after me for every time I’ve filled up my tank?”
Maybe.
A more honest way to punish burning of fossil fuel is a carbon tax. “If you want to change people’s behavior,” says Fisher, “you tell them that their behavior is going to be taxed. This is taxing behavior that’s already occurred—perfectly legal at the time. So, there’s no…
