George Shultz pushes for carbon tax CLIMATE CHANGE

Washington -- Republican eminence grise George Shultz addressed a packed room on Capitol Hill Friday to press for a carbon tax.

A Californian now at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Shultz taught economics at the University of Chicago and is one of just two people ever to hold four Cabinet posts.

Bucking his party on climate change, Shultz said all forms of energy should compete "on a level playing field" by incorporating the cost of their carbon pollution.

Once carbon pollution is included in energy prices, Shultz would "wipe out" subsidies to all fuels - fossil, nuclear and renewable - and let the market choose.

Carbon tax revenue under his plan would be remitted to consumers in the form of a "carbon dividend check." Modeled on Alaska's Permanent Fund, the plan is similar in concept to legislation by Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Bernie Sanders, independent-Vt.

Shultz said that when he was secretary of state in the 1980s, scientists became concerned about depletion of the Earth's ozone layer. The science was controversial, he said, but everyone agreed that, if true, the results would be catastrophic.

Former President Ronald Reagan "decided we should have an insurance policy," he said, which became the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that cut damaging emissions.

Shultz said the lesson is, "If you wait until things reach a boiling point, you might have missed your moment."

He said skeptics should look at the melting of the Arctic.

"An ocean is being created that wasn't there before," Shultz said. "Never mind the science; use your eyes. That's not science, that's plain observation."

He dismissed "gigantic meetings" on climate change, such as the Kyoto Protocol and Copenhagen. "Having 190 countries sit around a table doesn't work," he said.

The U.S. instead should lead a small group of nations, including China, to explore a pact and then "expand the circle." Air pollution in Beijing is so bad "that you don't dare go out of your hotel," Shultz said. "It's awful, and they know it."

Shultz said he installed solar panels on his Palo Alto house five years ago and drives an all-electric car.

"I'm driving on sunshine, and it's free," Shultz said, adding: "Take that, Ahmadinejad," a reference to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.