Inglis now heads the Energy and Enterprise Initiative housed at George Mason University. Inglis all-in on emissions tax

Former Rep. Bob Inglis knows that his devotion to a carbon tax might have cost him his job.

But the South Carolina Republican has no regrets as he dedicates his post-congressional career as well to the battle to persuade fellow conservatives to embrace a revenue-neutral carbon tax.


“And really, I am the worst commercial for this, because I got my head blown off trying to do it,” he told POLITICO, sitting at a coffee shop a short walk from the Capitol. But he added, “Losing an election is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Losing your soul is considerably worse.”

The controversial tax proposal has long won the backing of many economists, who say it is the simplest and purest means of reducing emissions blamed for contributing to climate change. And while it has also won tentative backing from oil giants like Shell and ExxonMobil, it’s been pilloried by many oil-state politicians and conservatives, who say it would raise energy costs and hurt fossil fuel industries.

The circumstances, Inglis said, are going to change in no small part because of an improving economy and the increasing inevitability of Environmental Protection Agency climate regulations.

Still, it may take an act of God — and perhaps more mighty storms like Hurricane Sandy — or at least the tireless efforts by true believers like Inglis in both parties to eventually break through a seemingly impenetrable political barrier facing a carbon tax.

“It could be a questionable career move,” he said. “But on the other hand, … when you lose the opportunity to advance the idea that really was the best idea I ever had in my time in public office, if you’ve got another avenue to pursue, why not go for it?”

And Inglis, who now heads the Energy and Enterprise Initiative housed at George Mason University, is in it for the long haul.

“It’s the one thing I do,” he added. “So yeah, it’s all in.”

And he’s learning to take things slow.

“It’s a building year, coach,” he said.

In fact, he said it’s going to take until at least next Congress for enough market pressure to build for the “grand bargain” on reforming the Tax Code that could include a tax on carbon emissions.

“It’s not that we have time. We need time,” he said.

The demand from Wall Street for Capitol Hill to reform the Tax Code and adopt changes to entitlement programs will grow stronger, he said. “But it’s also going to involve a search for new revenue,” he said.

In a way, Inglis is seeking an “immaculate conception” where “there’d be nobody claiming paternity for this thing. But it’ll just come out of the grand bargain.”

The hope also is that the Republican views on climate change — and more specifically, a tax on carbon emissions — will evolve just as they have on immigration reform and gay rights as a way to attract more young voters to the party.

“The driver is going to be trying to get young people to be part of the Grand Opportunity Party and move away from the Grumpy Old Party,” he said. “If my party is the party of ‘we don’t believe in science,’ that’s hard to maintain with young people.”

While in Congress, Inglis introduced a bill that instituted a $15 per ton tax on carbon rising to $100 per ton over 30 years. That was paired with an equal cut in Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes.

A grand bargain on tax reform, he said, could replace that cut in FICA with perhaps a corporate or personal income tax cut or a direct dividend back to taxpayers.

Coupled with that would be eliminating all energy subsidies, including tax incentives used by Big Oil, which conservatives like Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) are pushing. And the carbon tax would be “border adjustable” to help win support from those in manufacturing districts.

That would mean removing the tax on exports and imposing them on imports, which Inglis acknowledges would face strong opposition from countries like China and India.

“We concede there would be a whale of an argument,” he said, on whether it would be World Trade Organization compliant. But the U.S. could determine the carbon footprint of, say, a Barbie doll imported from China not based on the emissions of manufacturing the toy there but the pollution that would have been emitted by more energy-efficient and greener manufacturing sector in the U.S.

The idea of a carbon tax has long been championed by economists of all political ideologies as well as some individual scholars at the American Enterprise Institute and Resources for the Future.

Climate change advocates on the left such as Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) have pushed the idea, as well.

But the reality of the current politics around the issue hit home when an amendment Whitehouse offered to the nonbinding Senate budget resolution that would have directed the revenue from a tax or fee on carbon pollution be “returned to the American people” through reduced tax rates attracted only 41 votes. A majority in the Democrat-led Senate gave support for a Republican amendment on that bill opposing any federal fee or tax on carbon emissions.

The effort by Inglis to get more support for the idea is starting in the states and not on Capitol Hill. “There’s not a lot to be gained at this point by talking to members of Congress and the Senate,” he said.

Instead, he’s talking to conservative opinion-makers and the “thought leadership of the conservative cause.” He declined to name names but said his private communication with some of the leaders has been positive. He’s also going to college campuses — largely preaching to the choir — in the hope that the students will become ambassadors to their parents and grandparents.

Inglis is brainstorming test messages with ad agencies and thinks one of those messages will be “America the indispensable,” meaning that the world is waiting on the U.S. “We’re the only ones with the might to pull this off,” he said. “And conservatives are the indispensable party for action.”

There is already momentum on the left, he said, to address climate change.

Inglis voted against a 2009 House Democratic cap-and-trade bill, which for most Democrats “is the girl that they didn’t really love,” he said. “They loved the concept of the girlfriend, but they didn’t love that actual girl. And so I think they’ll switch to a much better-looking girl named ‘revenue-neutral carbon tax.’”