Letter below emailed to Trenton Times on 02-11-15 and published in printed paper on 02-21-15.
EDITOR:
“Have I got a deal for you?”
This old comic line came to mind when I read the recent op-ed by Cass Sunstein. He wrote that people want government to act to slow climate change, but they don’t want to pay more taxes for this.
The deal I have is a system of “carbon fee and dividend”. Very briefly, here’s how it works.
- Put gradually rising fee on all fossil fuels.
- Divide revenue into equal shares and return it to citizens as dividends.
- Rising price of fossil fuels will send price signal to conserve energy and to replace fossil energy with non-fossil sources.
- Business community will respond with more energy efficient products and alternative energies like solar and nuclear.
- Dividends will help citizens adjust and facilitate transition from fossil fuels.
The drive to conserve energy and develop non-fossil energy sources will create new products, services, and jobs. Carbon fee and dividend will be an all-around win.
Bill Allen
Basking Ridge, NJ