As mayor of Chattanooga, Bob Corker was widely recognized as a success, lauded by Republicans and Democrats. After narrowly winning his Senate seat in 2006, he’s quietly made a mark as one of more innovative thinkers in the Republican caucus. His sharp criticisms of the auto bailout won him the admiration of grassroots conservatives, who’ve tended to be skeptical of Corker in light of his moderate social views. I wonder if he’ll emerge as a more prominent voice over the next few years.

Corker has recently stated that he favors a “cap-and-dividend” approach to carbon emissions. After opposing Waxman-Markey, as Kate Sheppard of Grist noted,

His office put out a press release shortly thereafter, noting, “Corker has worked to ensure that whatever Congress implements, be it a cap-and-trade system that acts as a tax or a transparent carbon tax, that 100 percent of the tax revenue is returned to the American people and is not used to increase the size of government.”

It’s not clear that such a program would be as effective as, say, directing the revenue towards the deployment of technologies designed to reduce the carbon intensity of the U.S. economy. But it’s worthy of consideration, and it certainly has advantages over the Waxman-Markey approach.