The time has come to take on climate change. Last year was the warmest year on record, again. The science is clear enough. The projected economic costs of climate change are staggering; the projected costs in terms of lives lost and human suffering is unfathomable. And yet, we have before us a viable and politically attainable solution. Climate change is, at its core, a problem of market failure whereby the true costs of CO2 emissions have been omitted from the price of fossil fuels. The solution is to place a price on carbon; and a rapidly emerging national policy proposal known as “Carbon Fee and Dividend” would do just that.
Under carbon fee and dividend, a fee would be assessed on the carbon in fossil fuels at their source (mine, well, or point of importation). The fee would start small and steadily increase each year. All revenue generated would be returned to the American people in equal shares as a rebate or “dividend.”
The main effect of carbon fee and dividend would be a market-driven decrease in the use of fossil fuels and associated CO2 emissions, and an increase in energy efficiency and renewable energy development. This would minimize the need for onerous governmental energy regulations and subsidies that attempt to forecast winners and losers.
Increases in the cost of living caused by increasing fossil fuel costs would be offset by the dividend, with the bottom two-thirds of households by income breaking even or actually coming out ahead. Additional benefits of a transition to low-carbon energy sources would be increased public health, a net increase in jobs and economic growth, and increased local energy development.
Carbon fee and dividend has been widely advocated for by the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization Citizen’s Climate Lobby, which has local chapters in Grand Marais, Two Harbors, Duluth, and throughout Minnesota and the U.S. carbon fee and dividend’s market-based approach and revenue-neutrality is attracting support from many prominent Republicans including George Schultz, Secretary of State under President Reagan. For more information on carbon fee and dividend go to citizensclimatelobby.org or contact me.
George Wilkes
Co-Chair, Grand Marais
Citizen’s Climate Lobby
Grand Marais
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