Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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The Feb. 4 column “Environment can’t wait for carbon tax deal” reinforces a simple law of economics: If you want to reduce the consumption or production of something, in this case carbon emissions, you have to make it more expensive.
Why not make it increasingly more expensive for carbon polluters to continue their environmentally damaging ways? If these businesses are smart, they will find ways to reduce or avoid the annually escalating fees based on the tons of carbon emissions they produce. One way is through innovation — endorsing and supporting technologies that reduce emissions, and thus the fees, while allowing them to remain profitable.
The authors of the Feb. 4 column propose that the biggest economies in the world, the United States and European Union, should work together by implementing a unilateral carbon fee and thus expand their economies and improve global well-being. It would act to subsidize some of the world’s most productive areas and expand local economies because if the fees collected are rebated to the local citizens where they are paid, local income would increase.
We must push our members of Congress for additional national legislation to combat climate change. The climate components of the Inflation Reduction Act are not enough if we are to reduce our carbon footprint 50% by 2030.
The writer is a member of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
