“Round of applause for a carbon tax!”

Let’s revisit what Gene Karpinski, President of the League of Conservation Voters, said about Sen. Mark Udall and his wife, Maggie Fox, just a couple of weeks ago:

Not only does he vote right almost all the time, he’s a champion… His wife Maggie comes out of the movement as well. She gets it.  It’s a team that works all the time.” [the Peak’s emphasis]

“It’s a team that works all the time.”  Keep that in mind PeakNation™, as we catch up on what Maggie Fox has been doing since she was dumped by Al Gore.

The Free Beacon reported this week that Fox showed up in an anti-oil, anti-fracking video produced by Mr. “Never Let Go”, Leonardo DiCaprio:

Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Udall’s (Colo.) wife called for a carbon tax while appearing in a new anti-oil video produced by Leonardo DiCaprio…

“They’re ready to understand that carbon pollution is causing this challenge and that there is a simple solution: put a price on carbon pollution,” she says. [the Peak‘s emphasis]

We’ve already covered this earlier this month with an Economist’s article that points out, even when all externalities of carbon pollution are factored in, it would take a carbon tax of $185 a ton to make solar power competitive with coal.  Wind power is even more unaffordable.  In the movie, DiCaprio is calling for a carbon tax of anywhere from $20-$100, that is still $85 short of making solar competitive, but $5 more than the cap and trade price of carbon ($15) in Europe that has harmed their economy.  A carbon tax in Australia that was roughly $22.50 just got repealed because of the harm it was doing to their economy.

Which brings us back to our main point: if Maggie Fox and her husband Mark Udall are in favor of a carbon tax, what do they believe the price should be?  Udall on his official website calls for a “common-sense price on carbon,” but as far as we can tell, such a price doesn’t exists.  A $20 price on carbon is well below making renewable energy competitive, yet already too prohibitively high that it begins to harm an entire country’s economy.  Can someone ask Udall what he, his wife, and Leo think would be an appropriate price for a carbon tax?

In the meantime, enjoy watching this video with the scary music and oversimplifications.  Pay attention to that part where they tout what Australia has done with nary a mention of the recent repeal; or, how they completely ignore that Norway is one of the biggest oil exporters in the world.  Even our very own Boulder gets a shout-out, never-us-mind that at a median family income of $113K a year, Boulderites are more than able to cushion the increase in the karma carbon price.

Given another six years in the Senate, how high will Mark Udall raise our taxes just so his wife can continue to hang out with movie stars like Leonardo?