Practical solution for CO2

Judy Butler’s May 17 letter, “Don’t ignore rising CO2,” says we must act to save ourselves. How can we act effectively without moving back to a primitive existence?

Citizens’ Climate Lobby has a practical and achievable solution: Enact revenue-neutral carbon fee and dividend legislation. This market-based solution would place a slowly increasing “carbon fee” on fossil fuels to internalize the social costs of carbon dioxide pollution, giving companies clear market signals about the need to modify operations.

New technologies would be encouraged as the price of these alternatives drop relative to fossil fuels. Government would not pick winners, the market would. “Revenue-neutral” means government would not make or lose money by implementing this legislation. Money raised by the carbon fee would be distributed to households as monthly “dividends,” injecting money into the economy and enabling choices about energy use.

The carbon fee and dividend proposal is a win-win solution. Regional Economic Models Inc. showed it would add more than 2 million jobs to the economy in 10 years, while reducing carbon emissions by 33 percent.

Virginia Lohr

Pullman