"Two plans gaining traction would both put a price on fossil fuel pollution and send revenue back to taxpayers as dividends. Only one has big oil companies on board."

"Not long ago, a carbon tax was the untouchable third rail of climate politics.

"We have done extensive polling on carbon tax. It all sucks," John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, wrote to another adviser in a memorable January 2015 email from the Wikileaks stash.

But four years later, amid the political upheaval wrought by President Donald Trump, several carbon tax proposals are getting a serious look on Capitol Hill. Ironically, the president's rejection of climate science and his fossil fuel-focused agenda may have helped usher in an era when carbon taxation is politically thinkable."

Marianne Lavelle reports for InsideClimate News March 7, 2019. [2]