Investment Banks Join Yellen, Corporate Heads to Push Carbon Tax

Investment banks JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are backing a plan to tax carbon dioxide emissions, as former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and executives from more than a dozen Fortune 100 companies pitched senators on the idea.

The executives, environmentalists and financial experts outlined their proposal over dinner Tuesday night for members of the bipartisan Senate Climate Solutions Caucus. At the event they portrayed their carbon tax-and-dividend plan as the most cost-effective way to dramatically slash greenhouse gas emissions that are driving global warming.

Participants included executives from oil companies Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips ...