Carbon tax proposed

A group of Republicans wants Trump administration to back climate change plan.

WASHINGTON —Apushbya group of senior Republican statesmen for a tax on carbon to help combat the effects of climate change is already meeting entrenched opposition from within their own party.

Former Secretary of State Jim Baker went to the White House on Wednesday to gain Trump administration support for the plan, which would place a new tax on oil, natural gas and coal and then use the proceeds to pay quarterly dividends to American taxpayers. They said the payments would amount to about $2,000 total each year for families.

In addition to Baker, former Secretary of State George Shultz and other former officials from the Reagan and Bush administrations support the proposal.

Republicans, the group argued, need to take a leadership role on fighting climate change, a problem for which they said the evidence is growing too compelling to ignore.

A delegation led by Baker met Wednesday with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council.

Vice President Mike Pence, Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were also invited by organizers, though it was not clear whether they attended.

Asked about the meeting at his daily briefing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer declined to comment.

Within hours of their announcement, influential conservative anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist took to Twitter to suggest the proposal was dead on arrival.

“Now that the GOP can repeal all the anti-energy, anti-job regs — the Left offers to trade those regs for a carbon tax,” tweeted Norquist, president of the group Americans for Tax Reform. “Nice try. No.”

Congressional Republicans have repeatedly beaten back proposals for instituting a carbon tax, which would raise the cost of fossil fuels to discourage consumption.

They estimate the plan would raise $200 billion to $300 billion annually, which would be redistributed back to taxpayers.

As part of the proposal, the group also recommends repealing nearly all carbon emissions regulations approved under President Barack Obama, including the Clean Power Plan.

So far, Trump has sent mixed signals on whether or how he will try to slow Earth’s warming temperatures and rising sea levels. He has called global warming a “hoax,” but also recently met with prominent climate activists Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio.