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This Note supports a framework for climate governance that transforms
carbon tax revenues into equal per‑capita cash distributions for all United States
residents: a green universal basic income (UBI). It examines how the institutional
structure of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) can guide the design
of a federal resource‑based dividend. By combining economic analyses of
efficiency and distribution with legal scholarship on political salience and
administrative design, the Note uses Alaska's PFD as an empirical case study to
connect two often separate literatures. The Note introduces the PFD's key
features—universality, independent fund management, and a narrative of
collective resource ownership—and evaluates how those features can inform the
design of a federal carbon-dividend system. Although the proposed framework
may not represent the theoretically most efficient pathway to decarbonization, it
prioritizes political viability and institutional resilience in a fragmented
governance environment. In doing so, the Note offers a practical approach for
transforming carbon pricing from a politically vulnerable tax into a durable
public institution.
Lily Skopp, Carbon Cash Back: A Green UBI for a Decarbonized Future, 42 Alaska Law Review 355-389 (2026)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/alr/vol42/iss2/5
