Environmental Tax Policy Institute

The 2008 conference will focus on role of taxation and other market-based instruments in addressing the environmental impacts of cities and megacities. Where: The National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, Singapore When: Nov. 6 – 7, 2008 Read more >>

Vermont Law School's Environmental Tax Policy Institute analyzes the ways in which taxation can be used to address environmental problems. By serving as a resource for the public and private sectors, non-governmental organizations, the press and academia, the Institute seeks to better inform the public policy debate about the role of environmental taxes at the local, state and federal levels.

New and Noteworthy

Just Published—Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, Volume V
Oxford University Press has just published a volume containing 40 papers delivered at the Seventh Annual Global Conference on Environmental Taxation, held in Ottawa in the fall of 2006—Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, Volume V, edited by Nathalie Chalifour, Janet Milne, Hope Ashiabor, Kurt Deketelaere and Larry Kreiser. For information, visit Oxford University Press online.

What is Environmental Taxation?

People often think of taxation and the environment as two entirely different worlds—two circles that do not intersect. Governments impose taxes to raise the revenues they need to operate; governments get involved in environmental matters to protect the public interest. However, the two circles do intersect. Governments can—and do—use tax policies to achieve environmental goals.

Environmental taxes come in many different forms, but as a general matter environmental tax measures either impose a tax cost on some product or activity that is environmentally damaging, or they give a tax benefit to some product or activity that is environmentally beneficial.

For example, the federal government imposes a significant excise tax on ozone-depleting chemicals, and it offers a tax credit to people who buy electric vehicles. In both instances, the tax code has altered the "price" of the commodity, injecting an important signal into the economic calculations that affect behavior.

All types of tax systems—income tax, estate tax, property tax, and excise tax—potentially can incorporate environmental tax measures, and all levels of government—local, state, and federal—can consider environmental taxes. Environmental taxes will not necessarily replace traditional environmental regulation. In some instances, they may complement regulation, and in others they may provide an option when regulation is not appropriate.

The Institute's Services

On a project-by-project basis, Vermont Law School's Environmental Tax Policy Institute will conduct research on a wide range of environmental tax issues. Potential projects could include:

• the application of environmental taxation to specific environmental issues, such as energy consumption, toxic waste, sprawl, water and air quality, and habitat protection;
• issues involved in the design of sound environmental taxes;
• constitutional questions raised by the use of environmental taxes;
• assessments of the extent to which governments in the United States and around the world are using environmental taxes; and
• the role of environmental taxation compared with other approaches to environmental problems.

The projects may result in publications, white papers, and conferences or workshops. Anyone interested in exploring the potential for a project is invited to contact the Institute.

The Institute's Director

Professor Janet E. Milne, has devoted her career to matters involving taxation, the legislative process and the environment. She has taught environmental tax policy at Vermont Law School since 1994. Previously, she was a tax attorney at Covington & Burling in Washington D.C., and a tax legislative assistant to Senator Lloyd Bentsen when he served as Chair of the United States Senate Finance Committee. She has spent time in Germany studying that country's use of environmental taxes and has presented papers at national and international conferences on environmental taxation.

For More Information

For more information about the Environmental Tax Policy Institute, please contact:

Professor Janet E. Milne, Director
Environmental Tax Policy Institute
Vermont Law School
Chelsea Street
South Royalton, VT 05068 U.S.A.
(802)831-1266
jmilne@vermontlaw.edu