States with poor climate policy ‘overlap’ with those seeking to limit rights, Kamala Harris says
The Democrat has said she backs a nationwide carbon tax for states with a “feast or famine” relationship to environmental law
Democratic U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris said Sunday the United States needs a strong national policy to address climate change, though she acknowledged that states are finding it difficult to do so.
Harris, a California Democrat, said she supports a national carbon tax, but she said it needs to be paired with a strong national policy to meet her demand for a “feast or famine” relationship between states and environmental law.
“Here’s my issue with that: If there’s a place where there are a bunch of states and they’re not in a good climate and they’re not complying with the law and they’re not doing the right thing, and if you’re a state and if you’re not being forced to follow the law, then you can sit down and say, ‘look, we’re going to do this and we’re going to do that,’” Harris said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” program.
“Then it becomes a little hard for me to support this notion that the federal government can create some kind of carbon trading system within the states, which is just a bad idea.”
When pressed by host Margaret Brennan if she believed a nationwide carbon tax was the only solution to the nation’s climate change problems, Harris said it would be “good to have a national solution.”
“So I want a national solution and I want a federal policy,” she said. “But it must be paired with a state that’s on board.”
Harris also said the nation currently lacks a “climate change consensus” on the most cost-effective climate solution.
“I’m a big believer in a national consensus, but I’m also a believer in a lot of the states doing their thing and I think that’s what we need,” she said.
The California Democratic senator also said she would support setting a goal of reducing energy consumption in the United
