Carbon tax sparks both sides of argument at energy symposium

UH Energy hosted a symposium Tuesday on the possibility of a carbon tax, a tax that is intended to possibly reduce the emission of carbon dioxide, and featured prominent speakers from various energy fields and backgrounds.

Speakers Marvin Odum, H. Leighton Steward, Kyle Danish and Aparna Mathur participated in a panel discussion and offered up their views on the controversial issue.

Geologist and author Leighton Steward sparked controversy among the crowd with his statements on climate change.

Stewart, who admitted he was not an expert on carbon tax and could not speak on the issue, centered his assertions to dispelling the view that carbon emissions are bad for the environment.

“If you look at the empirical evidence and facts, carbon is the gas of life,” Stewart said. “Through thousands of studies, the Earth is in fact getting greener, but the media loves to tell a disaster study, so none of you students know about it.”

Shell Gasoline Company representative Marvin Odum said he is dedicated in tackling the climate change problem through carbon tax.

Odum said that 1.3 billion people don’t have access to clean energy.

“Shell supports a price tax for excessive carbon emissions, but we also want the market to power the change,” Odum said.

Aparna Mathur, resident scholar in economic policy at American Enterprise Institute, stressed that a carbon tax might end up hurting the world’s poor. She reviewed the pros and cons of a carbon tax, and the vulnerability of the lower class is number one on the list of cons.

All of the speakers echoed the sentiment that a solution to carbon tax is complicated and a simple solution is not possible.

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