Market-based solution

Joseph R. Mason’s vision for America’s full energy potential (Dec. 27) included only fossil fuels extracted from our national lands and waters. He predicted more jobs and growth, but his simplistic analysis ignored most costs. What are the costs to the environment and tourism when a mountaintop is removed to extract coal? Who pays when offshore oil rigs explode? How much are losses to homes damaged by earthquakes from fracking? His report included none of these.

Mason also ignored costs from pollution and greenhouse gases when fossil fuels are burned, such as costs from flooding more of Miami with rising sea levels. What about costs from Defense Department projections of higher national security threats? What are losses from bigger forest fires? What will costs be to local ski resorts, which are already buying more snow-making equipment (Dec. 20)?

There is a better, more comprehensive solution: a carbon tax. Regional Economic Models and Synapse Energy Economics analyzed a revenue-neutral, fee and dividend, carbon tax. It would increase economic growth, jobs, and renewable energy, while reducing pollution, premature deaths, and greenhouse gasses. Learn more from Citizens’ Climate Lobby about this market-based solution, which even Mason promoted (2009).

Virginia Lohr

Pullman