Carbon pricing a great tool

This year again we’ve seen more frequent extreme climate-driven events right here in our Pacific Northwest: drought, wildfires, heat waves, floods, landslides, and more. Climate change is a crisis we are all facing, and it is caused by human-generated greenhouse gases. This is widely accepted.

What is more difficult is knowing what to do to curb climate change. One of the tools that many developed economies are using is a price on carbon. Thousands (yes, literally thousands) of economists support a carbon price as an effective tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a short period of time. Even the American Petroleum Institute supports a carbon price.

This makes sense because the alternative — ad hoc regulations that may change between administrations — would be harder for industry to deal with than a predictable pricing scenario. A carbon price would reduce emissions effectively and quickly across the economy. In addition, if a carbon price is combined with a dividend, the revenue would come back to U.S. households to spend as they want.

Please take a minute to write to your senators, representative and President Biden. This is easily done at https://citizensclimatelobby.org/get-loud-take-action on the national Citizens’ Climate Lobby web site. Let them know you want a carbon price now. Thank you so much for your time and your voice.

Margaret A. Davis

Moscow, Idaho