Message below was emailed to President Obama on July 24.
Bill Allen, 08-03-10 <> OFFby2050
Dear Mr. President:
The PBS NewsHour last night showed a clip of a speech you made in February 2008. An excerpt follows: “No business will be allowed to emit any greenhouse gas for free. Businesses don’t own the sky; the public does. If we want them to stop polluting it, we have to put a price on all pollution.”
I agree entirely. In a letter to you on June 24 I urged you to call for ” bold program to phase out fossil fuels and build a sustainable 21st century economy powered by clean energy.” John Kennedy challenged the country to land a man on the moon and bring him back “before this decade is out.” I urged you to challenge the country and set the goal to stop burning fossil fuels by 2050.
Because the program will stimulate new technologies and generate good American jobs, I call it “ReEnergize America.”
A core component of the program should be a system of “carbon fee-and-dividend.” Impose fees on all fossil fuels, collect them at the source [mine, well, port of entry], and return the revenues to the people as dividends. This will fully satisfy the conditions you laid down in your comments above. And it can be a very simple system with no concessions to special interests. [I elaborate further on the system in my letter.]
The energy legislation that the Senate set aside would not have satisfied your conditions. There were huge loopholes. Because a system of carbon cap-and-trade is inherently complicated, it will always invite concessions to special interests. If passed, it might serve as an excuse for several years to not do more, and would be worse than nothing.
I propose that you announce the program to ReEnergize America this summer. Let Congress off the hook for legislation this year. Declare the rest of 2010 to be a period for national dialog on the program and how to implement it. Call for enabling legislation in 2011.
If you lead, Americans will follow. If America leads, the world will follow.
Please lead, Mr. President.
Respectfully,
Bill Allen