What's Happening
Roscommon/Crawford Chapter
What’s Happening
Regular
readers of this blog will remember that Citizens Climate Lobby has developed
and supported a proposal to mitigate climate change by enacting a national tax
on fossil fuels. Some people refer to the idea of taxing fossil fuels as a
carbon tax, although the formal name for Ccl’s proposal is Energy Innovation
and Carbon Dividend Act. The idea was first introduced in the US House of
Representatives and is now known as House Bill 763 as it awaits action from the
full House and Senate. Although the bill is widely lauded, action by both the
House and Senate has been slow in coming since many believe the administration
would surely veto the proposal if it were passed by Congress.
What’s
happening now is that our politicians are finally beginning to come to their
senses in considering solutions for climate change. It seems that nearly
everyone in both the House and Senate, regardless of political party, concurs
that action must be taken soon. That is, everyone except the current
administration, those who rejected our participation in the Paris Accords
agreement despite the US being one of its leading proponents during the Obama
years. Even comedians are ridiculing the official posture of the United States
in this regard.
"U.N. experts are
saying that climate change could start threatening the world's supply of fruits
and vegetables. Then Americans said, 'OK, let us know when it starts affecting
Twinkies and Hot Pockets.” –Jimmy Fallon
Forbes
Magazine now reports “the relevant question in America today is not whether a
carbon price will be enacted, but when.” Forbes rounds out their report with a
striking ending: “A future that does not include a price on carbon is no future
at all.”
There are
eight carbon pricing proposals in circulation in the current, 116th Congress. Four
of the proposals have Republican sponsors. Most have one or two sponsors while
the Ccl bill on carbon tax has 79 sponsors from both parties. If you would like
more details, the following web page provides a concise summary of the eight
proposals:
The idea of
taxing carbon emissions seems fundamental to all the new proposals for change. Even
major oil companies seem resigned to the fact of an impending carbon tax.
On June 15, the
chief executive of British Petroleum (BP) more than doubled BP’s carbon tax forecast to $100 [per ton] for the year 2030. The forecast reflects
BP’s view that the world will transition away from oil, coal and gas toward
cleaner alternatives by the end of the decade. BP also announced that it would
write off up to $10 billion in untapped oil reserves, an acknowledgement that the
world’s hunger for fossil fuels will fall precipitously.
House
Democrats recently announced an action plan to build a clean energy economy, with a price on carbon
serving “to internalize the cost of climate change in energy prices.” This,
after a recent poll showed an overwhelming majority of Americans are in favor
of a corporate tax on carbon emissions.
 |
| Ms. Stabenow introduces a new bill |
If you would
like more information about this proposal, here is a link that provides some
details concerning the proposal and its current status:
Ccl is among
the organizations supporting the Growing Climate Solutions Act as it appears to
dovetail nicely with Ccl’s Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. The
combined effect of both bills would go a long way toward cleaning up our atmosphere
and correcting the problems we face with climate change.
I don’t know
about you, but I am getting tired of our recent heat wave. The fix for climate
change is way overdue and can’t come soon enough to suit me. If you feel
inclined, you might want to tell Debbie thanks and urge her to go forward as
fast as possible.
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