COOL CODE: FEDERAL TAX INCENTIVES TO MITIGATE GLOBAL WARMING.

This article focuses on federal tax incentives to mitigate global warming. The U.S. Administration's fiscal year 1999 budget proposes an array of new tax incentives, with an estimated revenue cost of $3.8 billion over five years, that primarily are directed at reducing usage of fossil fuels. The budget also includes $2.7 billion of funds for research and other measures aimed at promoting the use of energy-efficient technologies. These proposals mark a revival of interest in using the federal income tax Code to influence energy demand. In the 1970s, the sharp rise in the international price of crude oil prompted Congress to enact tax incentives for energy conservation and alternative fuels in the Energy Tax Act of 1978 and the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act of 1980. Most of these tax incentives had sunset provisions and were allowed to expire in the mid 1980s when world oil prices collapsed. Now, the threat of global warming has again focused attention on energy use, because a reduction in fossil fuel consumption would lower emissions of carbon dioxide, which many scientists believe conributes to global warming.