As an American, I am a firm believer in fairness and justice. They are basic American values, no matter what our political affiliation.
Those values are some of the main reasons I favor a carbon fee and dividend plan to combat climate change. Today, fossil fuel companies are allowed to put their carbon pollution into the air, and there are no consequences.
That doesn’t seem fair or just to me. If we look at all the damage they are causing, the social costs are enormous, ranging from rising sea levels, increase in wildfires, storms, and droughts, and up to 200,00 deaths annually, according to the MIT, just from inhaling the particulate matter from the burning of fossil fuels.
If we put a price on the burning of fossil fuels to account for the damage they cause, it makes the whole situation much more fair and just. After all, fossil fuel companies produce the problems, and right now we all pay, and it only seems fair that they should pay for the damages they produce. Then you return all the money in a monthly dividend check to all U.S. citizens.
Numerous very reliable studies have shown this will stimulate innovation in clean energy and will grow the economy, adding millions of new, well-paying American jobs.
It will grow our economy and put more real spendable income into the lower two-thirds of American’s pockets, even accounting for higher energy costs. It will also decrease greenhouse gases by 90 percent by 2050, will not cost our government one penny and will avoid many costly government regulations.
This is a win/win situation – good for the environment, good for the American economy and it is fair and just. I ask you to strongly consider this solution as a conservative, free-market solution to climate change.
Dr. Vernon Dixon,Hiawassee, Ga.
The writer is a retired
psychiatrist.