Elon Musk: Eliminate subsidies for coal and oil, tax carbon

An excerpt from an interview of Elon Musk, cofounder of PayPal, by Fareed Zakaria for NEWSWEEK, July 21, 2008:

If you had a magic wand, what change would you make in America's energy policy?

I would certainly shift any subsidies on hydrocarbons to renewable energy. It's ludicrous to be subsidizing oil and coal and other things that clearly don't have a long-term future and bring great damage to the environment.

Would you like to see a carbon cap-and-trade system in the United States?

I'm actually a bigger fan of a carbon tax, just because it's a simpler thing to do than cap-and-trade.

What you're describing is a pretty optimistic future. You believe that American industry can successfully refashion the transportation sector to run on renewable energy?

I am actually fairly optimistic that we will solve this problem. But there's an important caveat there, which is, we cannot be complacent and just assume it will happen. There needs to be strong government action. There needs to be private investment; there need to be entrepreneurs that attack this problem. We will solve this problem—but only if we do all that.

The entire interview is here.