Citizens alliance has solutions for climate change
President George W. Bush, in his 2007 State of the Union
speech, said, "Dependence on foreign oil leaves us more vulnerable to
hostile regimes and terrorists, and clean domestic alternatives help us
confront the serious challenge of global climate change."
President Bush correctly noted that climate change,
national security and dependence on fossil fuels are a related set of
global challenges.
The U.S. Department of Defense recently
released its 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review. Every four years, our
military strategists attempt to predict future threats to our country,
the causes of these threats and a broad plan on how to deal with them.
This
year's report identifies the "threat multiplier" nature of climate
change. These "threat multipliers ... will aggravate stressors abroad
such as poverty, environmental degradation, political instability and
social tensions -- conditions that can enable terrorist activity and
other forms of violence.
"Furthermore, Adm. Sam Locklear, theater
commander of the Pacific, said to Congress just this summer, "Climate
change is the single greatest threat to security in the Pacific, except
for North Korea."
Henry M. Paulson was Bush's secretary of the treasury when the economic crash of 2008 waylaid us all. In his own words: "For
too many years, we failed to rein in the excesses building up in the
nation's financial markets. When the credit bubble burst in 2008, the
damage was devastating. Millions suffered. Many still do."We're
making the same mistake today with climate change. We're staring down a
climate bubble that poses enormous risks to our environment and economy.
The warning signs are clear and growing more urgent as the risks go
unchecked."
Paulson's answer to the problem of climate change is a
fundamentally conservative one that empowers the marketplace to find
the most efficient response. That is done, he says, by, "putting a price
on the emissions of carbon dioxide."
Paulson is not alone in
recognizing the danger in doing nothing. In recent years, an
organization, started by just a handful of people, has surged across
America, with chapters in every large city, including Fresno.
The
stunning growth rate of Citizens' Climate Lobby (CCL) is based on one
simple fact: CCL has a simple yet effective plan to combat climate
change: a national carbon-fee-and-dividend law.This is not cap
and trade. CCL's proposal is to charge a fee for carbon at its source
(mine, well, or border), and then rebate 100% of the revenues monthly to
every U.S. household, much like Alaska's Permanent Fund from oil
revenues. Pricing carbon would eliminate the market distortion that
results when no one pays the cost of dumping carbon into our atmosphere.
Two thirds of the population would come out ahead monetarily.In
this way, every U.S. consumer could use the extra money to cover
increased costs of transportation and products as they wish. They could
use their extra income to cover the higher cost of carbon-based fuels,
or switch to cheaper renewable-energy sources and actually help
themselves to a profit as they help the earth to a maintain a more
stable atmosphere.
No political party would choose winners and losers -- the U.S. consumer would do that.For
international trade, there would be import fees on products from
countries without a carbon fee, along with rebates to the U.S.
industries exporting to those countries.Recent in-depth studies
have shown pricing carbon in this way will give back to most Americans
more money than they put into the program, put the brakes on pollution
and actually create a net gain of 2.1 to 2.8 million jobs. U.S. CO2
emissions would decline (from the baseline year of 1990) 52% by the year
2035.Bush, Paulson and the Department of Defense are right --
climate change is a real threat to our nation's security and economy.
CCL's plan deserves close consideration from all of us, regardless of
political party.
Pete Moe has been a resident of the Fresno area for 22
years with his wife and three children. He retired after a 26-year
career as an officer and combat fighter pilot in the Air Force and
Fresno Air Guard. He is an international captain for Federal Express.
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