OPINION:
Thank you for the great Nov. 4 op-ed “Why conservatives should set a price on carbon pollution” (Web) pointing out that we need to take a market-based approach to energy. Right now the political clout of fossil fuel-corporations gets them massive government subsidies and we socialize the costs of carbon pollution.
We currently spend more than $866.5 billion annually for medical treatment of carbon-caused diseases and taxpayers shell out more than $1 trillion for climate-change disasters.
Of course, there’s the objection that a realistic price on carbon would punish consumers and taxpayers, but it doesn’t have to be that way. By making fossil-fuel corporations pay an annually increasing carbon-pollution fee — not to the government, but to every American, in monthly carbon “dividend” checks — the process would be revenue-neutral and have enormous economic benefits. People would make a profit by using their “dividend” money to buy clean energy.
In British Columbia, “carbon fee-and-dividend” (CFD) has slashed emissions while lowering taxes and energy bills for seven years. The economy there has grown faster than the economy of any other Canadian province; CFD has a whopping 83 percent public approval rating there. In the United States, CFD is projected to create 2.8 million net jobs and increase GDP $75 billion to $80 billion annually. It would also cut our emissions by more than half by 2030, much more and much faster than the EPA’s clean power plan.
CFD can also use market forces to cut emissions in China. A carbon fee on imports from any nation with higher emissions than ours would immediately make emissions cuts China’s number-one priority. Giving that import “dividend” to American consumers would bring back our manufacturing jobs.
LYNN GOLDFARB
Lancaster, Pa.
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