With Dodd Gone, So Goes Carbon Tax Champion

Sen. Chris Dodd
The Plan: Dodd has a $50 billion alternative energy research and development program he says would make the country independent from Middle East oil by 2015 while slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 80%.
How He'd Pay For It: A tax on carbon and an auction of carbon credits allotted for a cap-and-trade regulation on greenhouse gas pollution.
What Sets Him Apart: The tax on carbon, which no other candidate but Mike Gravel has embraced.

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After poor showings in the Iowa Democratic caucus, Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd have ended their bids to be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.

Both had published detailed energy and environmental plans that called for 80% reductions in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

With Dodd's departure, former Sen Mike Gravel, the longest of long shots, is the only candidate to embrace a carbon tax as the solution for staunching global warming pollution. Other Democrats, like Biden, favor a cap-and-trade regulation that economists say would be less efficient than a carbon tax, but which political pundits know is more palatable to a public wary of new taxes.

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