Letter below was submitted to Bernardsville News on 05-11-19. It was published in the online edition on 05-14-19 and in the print edition on 05-16-19.
Carbon Dividend Act to Help “ReEnergize America”
EDITOR:
I’m interested in lots of things. Climate change and doings in Washington top the list, and the news from these two fronts is usually bad. I’m happy to report here some good news.
A bill called The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act was introduced as HR-763 in the House of Representatives in January. Our Congressman Tom Malinowski, D-7, is one of 36 co-sponsors.
Most Americans recognize global warming and its related problems as a major threat. The principal cause is burning fossil fuels–coal, oil, natural gas–and producing carbon dioxide (CO2).
Some of this CO2 goes into the atmosphere, where it functions as a greenhouse gas, changes climate, and causes sea levels to rise. Some CO2 goes into the oceans, where it reduces pH and interferes with chemistry used by marine organisms.
There is less agreement on what should be done to reduce this threat. I am a member of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL). We argue that most important is to stop burning fossil fuels, and that the best way to do this is with a system of Carbon Fee and Dividend (CFD).
CCL has promoted CFD with members of Congress for over ten years. I have written about it several times in this space. HR-763 will implement CFD. Its major features follow.
- Put a “carbon fee” on each fossil fuel based on the quantity of CO2 emitted when the fuel is burned. Start fees low and raise them each year in accord with a predetermined schedule.
- This will send a price signal throughout the economy and encourage people to conserve energy and transition to goods and services that depend less on fossil fuels.
- Consumers and business people will be able to plan for the long term and act creatively and constructively.
- The business community will see opportunities and provide better ways for people to conserve and transition to non-fossil fuels.
- Divide fee revenue into equal shares, allocate one share to each adult and a half share to each child, and distribute these shares to the private sector as “dividends” to households.
- Billions of purchase decisions, that will drive the transition from fossil fuels, will be made by actors in the private sector.
- There will be less need for top-down government regulations, less justification for government subsidies, and less government interference in private lives.
HR-763 represents good progress. We thank Congressman Malinowski for co-sponsoring the bill and urge other members of Congress to support it. I ask your readers to do the same.
I’m old enough to remember these words in 1961 from President John F. Kennedy:
“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.”
Americans came together and met the challenge with the Apollo space program. We invented new technologies and generated new jobs. Our successes raised our confidence and lifted our spirits.
Let’s remember this and resolve to stop burning fossil fuels by 2050. Call the program ReEnergize America.
This challenge will be more difficult than going to the moon. It will require more than a decade. But some things will be the same.
As with Apollo, we already know much that must be done to achieve the goal, but not everything. As with Apollo, we will encounter problems. In solving them we will invent new technologies and generate new jobs. As with Apollo, our successes will raise our confidence and lift our spirits. We will ReEnergize America.
I will borrow again from John Kennedy: We choose to ReEnergize America, “not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” And I will add: It is essential that we do this.
We will have a CCL Charter Day booth in Basking Ridge on May 18. I invite your readers to stop by and discuss how we can work together to ReEnergize America.
Bill Allen 05-11-19