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Ted Halstead (July 25, 1968 – September 2, 2020) was an American author, policy entrepreneur, and public speaker who founded four non-profit think tanks and advocacy organizations: the Climate Leadership Council, Americans for Carbon Dividends, New America, and Redefining Progress. His areas of expertise included climate policy, economic policy, environmental policy, Health care, and political reform.
Halstead published numerous articles and two books including The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics (co-authored with Michael Lind). His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Fortune, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, National Review, and the Harvard Business Review, among other publications.
He was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Cologny in Geneva. "Young Global Leaders", weforum.org. No names or dates included in this webpage. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
The Climate Leadership Council was officially launched on February 8, 2017, with the publication of "The Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends", co-authored by James Baker, Martin Feldstein, Halstead, Gregory Mankiw, Henry Paulson, George P. Shultz, Thomas Stephenson, and Rob Walton. This report argues that a new climate strategy based on carbon dividends can strengthen America's economy, reduce regulation, help working-class Americans, shrink government, and promote national security. A profile in Bloomberg suggested the release of this report "may be the biggest day for climate policy since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015."
Since then the Climate Leadership Council has recruited a number of "Founding Members" which include:
The Climate Leadership Council's Baker-Shultz Carbon Dividends Plan is based on four pillars: (1) a gradually rising carbon fee, (2) carbon dividends for all Americans, (3) regulatory simplification, and (4) border carbon adjustment.
In 2019, the Climate Leadership Council helped organize a large public statement: The Economists Statement on Carbon Dividends, first published in The Wall Street Journal and signed by over 3,500 U.S. economists, including all four living former Chairs of the Federal Reserve (Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, and Paul Volcker), 27 Nobel Laureate economists, and 15 former chairs of the President's Council of Economic Advisors.
Americans for Carbon Dividends is funded by leading auto manufacturers, tech companies, energy companies, and trade associations from across the economy, including those in oil and gas, solar, wind, nuclear and geothermal. Americans for Carbon Dividends represents the first time that leading oil and gas companies have put their money behind a meaningful national carbon price, and the first time that such a broad coalition of U.S. energy interests have co-funded an advocacy campaign to promote a price on carbon.
As of January 2020, corporate funders of Americans for Carbon Dividends include: AWEA, BP, Calpine, ConocoPhillips, EDF Renewables, Exelon, ExxonMobil, First Solar, Ford, General Motors, IBM, Shell and Vistra Energy. Leaders of Americans for Carbon Dividends include former Republican member of Congress Ryan Costello as Managing Director, Steve Rice as Managing Director and Greg Bertelsen as Executive Vice President.
In 1995, Redefining Progress released the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), an alternative to the GDP that takes social and environmental costs into account. The GPI was launched in an October 1995 cover story in The Atlantic entitled "If The Economy Is Up, Why Is America Down?" that Halstead co-authored with colleagues Clifford Cobb and Jonathan Rowe. In 1997, Redefining Progress organized the Economists' Statement on Climate Change to promote market-based solutions to climate change. Over 2,600 economists and 19 Nobel Prize winners signed the statement.
Redefining Progress and Halstead also promoted the idea of a revenue-neutral carbon tax, which the government of British Columbia was the first to implement in 2008. Halstead stepped down as executive director of Redefining Progress in 1997, moving into a position on the board. Redefining Progress closed in 2008.
Shortly after founding New America, Halstead and Michael Lind co-authored "The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics," which Senator John McCain described as “A political manifesto worthy of the Information Age.” (2025). 9780385720298, Knopf Doubleday Publishing. ISBN 9780385720298 As a result, New America became known in its early years as a "Radical Centrist" think tank. On December 10, 2001, The Washington Post published a Styles section profile on Halstead entitled "Big Thinker: Ted Halstead's New America Foundation Has It All: Money, Brains and Buzz".
Steve Coll succeeded Halstead as President and CEO of New America in 2007. Anne-Marie Slaughter became New America's third President and CEO in 2013.
Halstead began his speech by naming three barriers to climate progress: psychological, geopolitical, and partisan. He argued that the conservative carbon dividends plan that he co-wrote with leading Republican statesmen “The Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends” , clcouncil.org, February 2017. Retrieved February 7, 2017. can overcome each of these barriers. He said, “I'm convinced that the road to climate progress in the United States runs through the Republican party and the business community.” Under the plan, he said, “We would end up with less regulation and far less pollution at the same time, while helping working-class Americans get ahead.”
At the end of the talk, TED curator Chris Anderson came on stage for a Q&A session with Halstead, and began by saying: "I'm not sure I've seen a conservative get a standing ovation at TED before".
Although Halstead and Bardach hoped to complete a circumnavigation by returning to the Mediterranean via the Red Sea, the piracy situation in the Gulf of Aden in 2012 was too dangerous. So they sold their boat in Bali in late 2012 after 4.5 years of non-stop sailing during which they visited five continents.
Death
Halstead died on September 2, 2020, when he fell 30 meters while hiking in Es Capdellà, Spain.
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