Jerry Taylor


Jerome Cogburn "Jerry" Taylor is an American environmental activist and policy analyst. Taylor is the president of the Niskanen Center, a Washington, D.C. based think tank that advocates for market environmentalism and the adoption of a carbon tax system to combat global warming.

Early life and education

Taylor attended the University of Iowa as a political science major. As a student, Taylor became an editor of the Hawkeye Review, an conservative student newspaper that served as an alternative to the Daily Iowan. Taylor's activism stirred several controversies including the alleged plagiarism of a Joseph Sobran column from National Review in the Daily Iowan, and his involvement in a harassment campaign against LGBT patrons at a local gay bar. When asked about the controversy, Taylor responded "I was a version of the campus conservatives who invite Milo to campus" and indicated he had since changed his views.

Career

During the 1990s and 2000s Taylor made regular media appearances as a global warming skeptic, including on Penn and Teller's show Bullshit as well as a special edition of the John Stossel show devoted to attacking climate science. Taylor changed his prior beliefs because "the scientific evidence became stronger and stronger over time." In 2015, Taylor published a recantation entitled the "Conservative Case for a Carbon Tax" in which he espoused a global carbon taxation system, enforced by tariffs and implemented as a revenue neutral tax swap.
On June 29, 2020, Taylor faced backlash after tweeting about two St. Louis homeowners who pointed firearms at Black Lives Matter protestors, calling them "racist lunatics" and further stating: "I’d like to think I’d rush them and beat their brains in. And I wouldn’t apologize for it for one goddam second...Yeah, excuse me if I root for #antifa to punch these idiots out. Guilty as charged. I know who’s side I’m on.”
He is also a board game designer who has released three wargames, Hammer of the Scots, Crusader Rex, and Richard III.

Personal life

He resides in Arlington, Virginia with his wife and their children.