Wide Interest in Impressive Plan
“Carbon fee & dividend” plan is gaining grass roots support
By Amelia Potvin, Letter to the Editor, Charleston Gazette, September 5, 2014
Thank you for Paul Nyden’s article about the potential for renewable energy to improve black neighborhoods.
Last summer, I spent several weeks in Huntington and in the Montgomery area, meeting with civic-minded people engaged in a variety of efforts to improve health and well-being, practice environmental stewardship, and seed small business startups. The NAACP’s findings — that health conditions and job prospects will improve as West Virginia continues to transition to wind, solar and geothermal energy sources — mirror the experience of other cities and states around the country.
In addition to the recommendations cited in the article, there is another strategy that can save 227,000 American lives due to increased air quality, grow GDP, create 2 to 3 million American jobs and reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 50 percent by 2035.
The policy is called “carbon fee and dividend,” and is currently on the desks of Senators Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller and Representatives Shelley Moore Capito, Nick Rahall and David McKinley. A fee based on the carbon content of fossil fuels would be levied at the point of extraction, with 100 percent of the revenue returned to American households as a monthly rebate.
To create regulatory certainty that businesses and individuals need for planning, the fee will start small and increase steadily over a decade. For most households, the dividend will exceed any increase in costs of living. Meanwhile, local, green options for food, retail and energy will become cost competitive with more carbon-intensive options. This policy is favored by conservative economists, because it relies on the market rather than subsidies or big government regulation, and it doesn’t single out specific sectors like electric generation.
Thousands of volunteers around the country, including in the 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts of West Virginia, write to and meet with their members of Congress in support of “carbon fee and dividend” every month. Every Wednesday at 8 p.m., the nonpartisan organization Citizens Climate Lobby hosts an introductory call about how ordinary people can help pass this landmark legislation. Registration for the call is available at citizensclimatelobby.org.
“Carbon fee and dividend” has the power to accelerate not only the NAACP’s work toward justice in health and environmental quality in West Virginia, but also the great work of groups like Create Huntington, Tri-State Health, Morris Creek Watershed Association and many others.
Amelia Potvin, Carbondale, Colorado
See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net
Point Your RSS Reader to FrackCheckWV.net/feed/
