Greenhouse gas emissions, mainly carbon dioxide and methane, are warming the Earth. Most emissions and most warming are caused by burning coal, oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that if we cannot cut emissions drastically and quickly, in the next dozen years, we will warm the Earth by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, with worsening impacts. The federal government’s fourth national climate assessment, released during the Trump administration, concludes:
“This period is now the warmest in the history of modern civilization.”
“… it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence.”
“Thousands of studies conducted by researchers around the world have documented changes in surface, atmospheric, and oceanic temperatures; melting glaciers; diminishing snow cover; shrinking sea ice; rising sea levels; ocean acidification; and increasing atmospheric water vapor.”
Some politicians and people believe global warming is a hoax, a concern created by an imagined conspiracy. However no conspiracy can melt the Arctic ice caps, something happening at the rate of 13 percent per decade according to NASA scientists.
Broad scientific consensus is leading to broad political consensus. More than 180 countries are parties to the 2015 Paris Agreement, “recognizing that deep reductions in global emissions will be required in order to achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention and emphasizing the need for urgency in addressing climate change.” The USA is a party to the agreement, though President Trump wants to withdraw from it.
The USA still gets 80 percent of its energy from burning fossil fuels. Energy producers and consumers are both sensitive to prices. The best way to accelerate the transition to cleaner sources of energy is to put a price on greenhouse gas emissions.
We and many other Americans believe the best such proposal is a “Carbon Fee and Dividend,” advocated by Citizens’ Climate Lobby and several other groups. We call it a fee, not a tax, because it would not give more revenue to government. It is a dividend because the revenue would be divided up between American households. Such per household payments would offset the increased costs from increased energy prices.
Fees would apply to all significant greenhouse gases. “Carbon” is a useful shorthand term for such fees as most emissions are from carbon-based fuels and those emissions also contain carbon (CO2, methane).
Carbon fees would start out relatively low and increase each year at a steady rate. There has been recent press speculation about very high carbon fees in the distant future. That seems unlikely as the cost of sequestering emissions (carbon capture and storage) and thus not paying fees creates a natural ceiling on how high fees could go. For base load power generation, fossil fuel plants combined with carbon capture and storage may be carbon neutral at lower costs than nuclear power, which would be good for Wyoming and for reduced emissions.
Carbon Fee and Dividend is compatible with every significant American political viewpoint. Democrats, progressives and Greens can be happy that the major problem of global warming will finally be addressed in a systematic way. Republicans, conservatives and libertarians can be happy that the solution is market-based and does not increase general government revenues.
Carbon Fee and Dividend is one major way to reduce emissions but not the only way. It will function alongside other policies that encourage clean energy, energy conservation, and land use that sequesters carbon.
Human knowledge has advanced steadily for two hundred years. There were times when radioactive radium was painted on watch dials, when asbestos was the best building insulator, and when lead helped car engines run better. The progress of human knowledge revealed the harm in those activities and stopped them. Fossil fuels enabled us to stop burning wood from forests and oil from dead whales; fossil fuels created the high standard of living that now enables us to transition to even cleaner energy. We should make that transition without further delay.
We only have one Earth, one planet that can support human life. Isn’t it time for us all to look past our other differences and agree to take care of that planet?
Martin L. Buchanan, Madeline Dalrymple, Martha Martinez Del Rio and Barbara Deshler
Laramie Citizens’ Climate Lobby
