Talking Climate · The Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy

33: How Utahns Could Support a Tax on Carbon Emissions

·33 min·2 clips

Across Republicans, Democrats, and independents, grocery store sales tax relief ranked highest.

1. Talking Climate covers Utah carbon-tax earmarking and the politics behind the “Clean the Darn Air” proposal. 2. Ross Chambliss hosts the episode from the Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy at the University of Utah, and guests Caitlin Tenney and Teresa Kavlovich explain a choice-experiment study. 3. The episode asks whether Utahns would support a carbon tax if the revenue were used for visible benefits like grocery tax relief and air cleanup. 4. Chambliss cites the proposal’s 10 cents per gallon gasoline tax and one penny per kilowatt electricity tax as the starting point. 5. Tenney says the organizers did not gather enough signatures before the 2024 election cycle, but the effort still revealed how Utah voters react to large climate proposals. 6. Kavlovich describes carbon pricing as a market-based approach that differs from “command and control” regulation. 7. Tenney says the study was influenced by prior surveys in Turkey, Italy, and Paris that measured preferences for carbon-tax revenue uses. 8. The researchers used a discrete choice experiment, asking Utah participants to choose among hypothetical policy bundles with different carbon-tax levels and revenue uses. 9. Kavlovich explains that this method comes from environmental economics and non-market valuation. 10. She also notes that carbon taxes can be regressive because poorer households spend a larger share of income on gasoline, groceries, and energy. 11. The survey ran on Prolific in April 2022 over two weeks and collected about 112 Utah participants. 12. Tenney says the sample included more Democrats than Republicans, but the researchers still aimed for a balanced mix of parties. 13. The study tested nine revenue uses, including clean energy development, local air-pollution cleanup, fossil-fuel-worker aid, and grocery sales tax relief. 14. Across all parties, the grocery store sales tax was the highest-valued use, which the hosts connect to redistribution and fairness. 15. Kavlovich says Democrats valued using revenue for local air-pollution cleanup most, while grocery tax relief ranked second for them. 16. Tenney reports a willingness-to-pay figure of about 70 cents more per gallon across parties for the grocery-tax offset option. 17. The episode has a policy-interview format, with Ross Chambliss asking detailed method questions and the guests responding with study design, results, and caveats. 18. The tone stays practical and explanatory, with repeated emphasis on pricing, externalities, and how to communicate carbon policy to Utah voters. 19. Listeners interested in Utah climate policy and environmental economics. 20. Listeners who want purely technical econometrics.

As heard by us

A carbon-tax proposal becomes a clear look at what Utah voters would support.

Talking Climate treats Utah's carbon-tax fight as a question of framing as much as policy. It follows the Clean the Darn Air ballot push, then turns to the study by Caitlin Tenney and Teresa Kavlovich, which looks at nine ways to spend carbon-tax revenue and how Democrats,…

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