LETTER: Carbon fee simply levels the playing field
In his recent letter, James Moldenhauer describes a false choice. We can, he writes, have a free market or higher fees on carbon set by the government.
Free market? Not really. Carbon is subsidized in many ways: directly by the government and because it avoids the responsibility for the damages that are caused by pollution ($600 billion per year in health costs) and by climate change (since 1980, we are seeing a five-fold increase in billion-dollar-plus climate disasters). More like a free ride than a free market.
Second, bills in Congress are designed to require a per-ton fee on all forms of carbon and then compensate citizens by returning those fees. This painless yet effective approach is favored by virtually all economists. Level the playing field and clean energy is preferred in a billion transactions and investments. Citizens are protected.
Why don’t we do this? Ask members of Congress who get donations from oil/coal/gas companies. They play us like a cheap fiddle.
