Letter below was submitted to the Bernardsville News on February 13, 2022 and published on February 18.
Editor:
Let’s talk about today’s issues
“How about we talk about today’s issues?”
These words led the last paragraph of a letter here on January 27. The writer is a supporter of our last president and I usually don’t read what he writes. But the letter’s title indicated it was a critique of President Biden’s press conference on January 19, and I wondered what filled the letter’s 36 column-inches.
The writer and I are on different sides of the political spectrum and I disagreed with most of what he wrote. But I do agree that a voter should have an ID card, so long as it is issued at no cost to the voter and requires only common-sense evidence of voter eligibility. I expect the writer and I can probably find common ground on some things.
This is an election year and there are lots of issues. Most important for me is what I have been writing about since 2010: We must act to slow and eventually stop global warming and the associated problems of climate change, sea level rise, and ocean acidification.
I am a member of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby. We propose a system of Carbon Fee and Dividend (CFD), in which a fee is imposed on each fossil fuel where it enters the US economy–at a mine, well, port, or pipe across the border. Start the fee low and raise it each year. Divide fee revenue into equal shares, and return it each month to lawful residents as dividends. One full share for each adult and one half share for each child.
House bill 2307, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, will implement CFD. It is a stand-alone bill and has 94 co-sponsors. We are currently lobbying to make it part of whatever budget reconciliation bill is ultimately passed.
CFD is not a silver bullet. Multiple strategies will be required to stop global warming. But CFD is the best strategy to implement now. It is simple and can be employed most quickly. It will require the least government regulation. It can engage all members of the public—consumers and business community– in a national effort. It will give each person the opportunity to decide how best to reduce his or her carbon footprint and contribute to the national effort.
I recommend that we ask all candidates for local and national office to state their positions on this strategy. And I invite everyone to do the same in letters to this paper.
Let’s have a calm and constructive discussion of the most important issue in this election year.
Bill Allen