Carbon tax elegant solution

Bravo to Bert Caldwell for recognizing the need to stop global warming, and his call for a carbon tax to do so.

As the most carbon-free energy producers in the nation, Washington and Oregon stand to benefit mightily from businesses seeking cheaper power in the future. Meanwhile, green energy companies such as Itron and Schweitzer Engineering already create thousands of high-paying jobs in Eastern Washington, making this a world center in the industry.

It’s in both our regional and national interest to tax carbon, to get us off foreign oil, to protect the climate, and to boost our local economy. However, carbon taxes have a problem: They are regressive, shifting costs onto poor and middle-income people.

So here’s a suggestion. Do what other rich nations already do, and use carbon taxes to fund universal health care.

In the same way that Europe and Japan use oil taxes to pay for health care that is both better and cheaper than our own, we could let carbon tax revenues make U.S. health care more available, bring down its cost and provide a motive to get off foreign oil – all while solving the regressiveness of a carbon tax. Elegant.

David Camp

Spokane