Environmental Tax Policy Institute
Overview
Vermont Law and Graduate 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.
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.
Services at the Environmental Tax Policy Institute
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
- 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.
Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation
Volumes I through XXIV
The Global Conferences on Environmental Taxation yield numerous papers on environmental taxation, written by environmental tax specialists around the world. Selected, peer-reviewed papers are published in the book series, Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, now published by Edward Elgar. The Environmental Tax Policy Institute’s Director, Professor Janet Milne, is a co-editor of the series.
The most recent volume, Green Deals in the Making: Perspectives from Across the Globe, Vol. XXIV (Stefan E. Weishaar et al., eds.) was published in 2022.
Environmental Taxation in the Pandemic Era: Opportunities and Challenges, Vol. XXIII (Janet E. Milne et al., eds. 2021).
Economic Instruments for a Low-carbon Future, Vol. XXII (Theodoros Zachariadis et al., eds. 2020).
Environmental Fiscal Challenges for Cities and Transport, Vol. XXI (Marta Villar Ezcurra et al., eds. 2019).
Innovation Addressing Climate Change Challenges: Market-Based Perspectives, Vol. XX (Mona Hymel et al., eds. 2018).
The Green Market Transition: Carbon Taxes, Energy Subsidies and Smart Instrument Mixes, Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, Vol. XIX (Stefan E. Weishaar et al., eds. 2017).
Green Fiscal Reform for a Sustainable Future: Reform, Innovation and Renewable Energy, Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, Volume XVII (Natalie Stoianoff et al., eds. 2016).
Environmental Pricing: Studies in Policy Choices and Interactions Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, Volume XVI, (Larry Kreiser et al., eds. 2015).
Carbon Pricing Design, Experiences and Issues, Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, Volume XV, (Larry Kreiser et al., eds. 2015).
Environmental Taxation and Green Fiscal Reform: Theory and Impact, Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, Vol. XIV (Larry Kreiser et al., eds. 2014).
Market Based Instruments: National Experiences in Environmental Sustainability, Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, Vol. XII (Larry Kreiser et al., eds. 2013).
Green Taxation and Environmental Sustainability, Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, Vol. XII (Larry Kreiser et al., eds. 2012).
Carbon Pricing, Growth and the Environment, Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, Vol. XI (Larry Kreiser et al., eds. 2012).
Environmental Taxation and Climate Change, Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, Vol. X (Larry Kreiser et al., eds. 2011).
Environmental Taxation in China and Asia-Pacific, Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, Vol. IX (Larry Kreiser et al., eds. 2011).
Conferences
Over the past 20 years, the Global Conferences on Environmental Taxation have become a useful and important meeting place for experts and scholars from all parts of the world who are interested in experiences and insights relating to environmental taxation and other market-based instruments. The Environmental Tax Policy Institute frequently is a supporting partner of the annual conference and it hosted the 3rd Global Conference on Environmental Taxation in 2002. The Institute’s Director, Professor Janet Milne, is a member of the steering committee for the conference series.
If you would like to be added to the mailing list for notices about the conference, please send your email address to Professor Milne at jmilne@vermontlaw.edu with the subject “GCET notifications.”
ETPI Publications
Often working with Vermont Law School students, Prof. Janet Milne has published on a wide array of environmental topics. Please see the publications noted below, the volumes of Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation: International and Comparative Perspectives, Volumes I through XIX (J. Milne, co-editor), and publications listed on Professor Milne’s CV. In addition, you can find copies of some of the publications at the following links:
Janet E. Milne, Carbon Pricing in the Northeast: Looking through a Legal Lens, 70 National Tax Journal 885 (2017).
Janet E. Milne, Storms Ahead: Climate Change Adaptation Calls for Resilient Funding, 39 Vermont Law Review 819 (2015).
Janet E. Milne, Environmental Taxation in the United States: The Long View, 15 Lewis and Clark Law Review 417 (2011).
Janet E. Milne, Watersheds: Runoff from the Tax Code, 34 Vermont Law Review 883 (2010).
Contact Us
For more information about the Environmental Tax Policy Institute, please contact:
Professor Janet E. Milne, Director
Environmental Tax Policy Institute
Vermont Law and Graduate School
164 Chelsea Street
South Royalton, VT 05068 U.S.A.
802-831-1266
jmilne@vermontlaw.edu
