Editor,

I write in favor of the favor Energy Innovation & Carbon Dividend Act of 2018 (S. 3791/H.R. 7173).  The Carbon Dividend Act is the real deal and merits our support.  Why?  It is an American response to an American problem of climate change caused by uncontrolled release of  greenhouse gasses.  The Act is a solution that has bipartisan sponsorship.

It is a free-market solution for conservatives by putting a price on waste greenhouse gas escape rather than imposing regulations per se.  Alternatively, the regulatory approach of the Clean Power (Plant) Plan (CPP) has been rejected by the EPA.  But the regulatory approach would still continue for vehicle emissions.  The Carbon Dividend Act has a goal to reduce greenhouse gas escape down to 90 percent of 2015 levels for liberals.

Most importantly, it is a solution for pragmatists (the vast majority of the American people) who simply want a practical way to reduce CO₂ and other greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere.

We the people are already paying for climate change.  Our tax dollars fund the response to, repair of and restoration from wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, sea level rise/storm surge through the Forest Service, FEMA, Homeland Security, the Coast Guard and other federal and state agencies.

Instead, the Carbon Dividend Act is revenue neutral by simply transferring a small increase per capita for end-consumers for the cost of fossil fuel heating and manufacture while encouraging fossil fuel users (oil and gas companies, manufacturers and other users) to have the choice of reducing their greenhouse emissions or continue paying the tax on their carbon-equivalent emissions.

The revenue from the tax would be returned to the American people every month.  So this is a revenue neutral way to pay for reduction of greenhouse emissions over time instead of continuing to increasingly tax the American people for ever more severe consequences of climate change.

As the amount of greenhouse gas emissions reduce over time the tax would abate to zero (and the citizen rebates) when the level reached 90 percent less than the 2015 level which would substantially achieve bringing atmospheric temperature toward the goal of 1.5C above the 1990 temperature.  Other benefits from the Act include the estimate of 2.1 million jobs created over 10 years from implementation and operation of carbon and other greenhouse gas sequestration.

The Carbon Dividend Act is an idea whose time has come.  None of us, I believe, want our children, grandchildren and future generations to wonder why we did not seize the opportunity to tackle climate change when we still had time while the world we bequeathed them suffered catastrophic melt-down.

So let’s all support S. 3791/H.R. 7173, and contact our Representatives and Senators for the world we do want to bequeath our children and grandchildren.

Anthony W. Dater

Kennebunk

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