Dr. Energy

One question in the debate over climate change is whether it is better to cut greenhouse gas emissions through a cap-and-trade system or a tax on carbon dioxide emissions.

Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, presidential candidate and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, came up with a third option during a panel discussion on energy issues Tuesday: Do both.

{mosads}Dean, who is also a medical doctor, said he favors the emission cuts required by the cap. But an additional tax could generate new revenues to pay for healthcare reform, which would help to achieve two broad policy goals of the administration.

Generally, the camps are split between proponents of a cap-and-trade system under which pollution credits could be traded on an open market to lower emissions and those who favor a tax on emissions. Some economists believe a straight tax is the more efficient approach, in part because it avoids the development of a complicated and massive new market system that could be open to the influence of speculators. Critics say business lobbyists have proven adept at adding loopholes to the tax code, and would be able to do likewise to a carbon tax, undercutting actual emissions reductions.

Dean had been rumored to be in the running for the top spot at the Health and Human Services Department. But Dean, who proudly told the audience that Vermont had the lowest per capita carbon emissions of any state thanks to its reliance on hydropower and nuclear energy, showed his energy chops at the Tuesday morning event, which was sponsored by The Energy Daily and the Glover Park Group, the Democratic public affairs and lobbying firm.

Like other governors before him, Dean expressed wariness of a national energy grid, fearing electricity reliability problems in one region could afflict his own. (Others on the panel said grid expansions were critical to making renewable energy like wind and solar power, often at their most abundant in remote areas, a larger piece of the overall energy mix.)

Dean also expressed his support for a national renewable electricity standard, so long as states were allowed to adopt even tougher standards of their own.

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