MSN endorses Carbon Fee & Dividend as a viable and effective policy solution to global warming. Greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel combustion are clogging our atmosphere and risk severe storms, flooding and sea level rise from already rapidly melting glaciers. Carbon dioxide levels have reached 400 parts per million (ppm) far above the long term level of 280 ppm prior to the industrial revolution in the late 1700’s. The Carbon Fee & Dividend policy proposed by Citizens Climate Lobby is a realistic policy that also supports our local initiatives including the Monadnock Sustainability Action Plan and NH Community Supported Solar.
A Carbon Fee and Dividend (CF&D) addresses consumer costs with a monthly Dividend and a border adjustment removes any incentive for businesses to relocate operations to countries more permissive on emissions. Under the plan developed by the Citizens Climate Lobby (citizensclimatelobby.org) a Fee is placed on carbon-based fuels at the source (well, mine, port of entry). This fee starts at $15 per ton of CO2 emitted, and increases steadily each year by $10 so that clean energy will be cheaper than fossil fuels within a decade. All of the money collected is returned to American households on an equitable basis. About 2/3 of all households would break even or receive more in their dividend checks than they would pay in higher prices due to the fee, thereby protecting the poor and middle class.
A predictably increasing carbon price will send a clear market signal that will unleash entrepreneurs and investors in the new clean-energy economy. A 2014 study by Regional Economic Models Inc. found that a Carbon Fee and Dividend would save hundreds of thousands of lives over 20 years while cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half and ADDING 2.8 million jobs to the economy.
It’s time to use the power of the market to curtail toxic and hazardous pollution. A fee on carbon-based fuels will speed the transition toward clean sources of energy reducing harmful pollutants such as mercury while adding jobs throughout the country. It will encourage innovations and local energy independence as the growth of the wind and solar industries accelerates including community owned solar projects such as the initial Community Supported Solar project on the Monadnock Food Co-op.
We invite you to learn more about this achievable policy option at Citizens Climate Lobby www.citizensclimatelobby.org.