CARBON FEE AND DIVIDENDS

With the clock ticking on our opportunity to limit global warming to the critical 2 degree increase by 2030, we need a bill in Congress that is both effective and bipartisan. A carbon fee and dividend policy, where a fee is assessed on carbon fuels and Americans receive dividend payments from the fees collected, is just that.

First, it’s effective. In their February 2021 report, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommend a carbon fee for achieving net zero emissions by mid-century. The 2018 report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calls carbon pricing “a necessary condition of ambitious climate policies.”

Second, carbon fee and dividend support is bipartisan. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated in January, “I do see Republican support, and not only Democrat support, for an approach that would involve a carbon tax with redistribution. It’s not politically impossible.”

In the last Congress, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act was introduced with bipartisan support and had 86 co-sponsors. The majority of Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, favor carbon fee and dividend policy and want Congress to act. This bipartisan appeal of carbon pricing stems partly from its stimulus of the U.S. economy and creation of jobs by encouraging financial investments in market innovations for new, clean technology.

I call on our members of Congress to co-sponsor a carbon fee and dividend bill. In the countdown to 2030, we can’t waste a minute on measures that won’t work both environmentally and politically.

William Engels

Pullman