Your Sept. 19 editorial, “Our View: The last best chance at major climate action” (Page D2), highlights the dire situation of our planet. And it asks the right question at the right time about the opportunity Congress has with the budget reconciliation bill: “Will enough members of Congress seize this last, best chance at enacting meaningful climate policies and take the world off its path to a bleak future?”

Your answer, however, suggests that lawmakers will not act in time. And, you promote a narrative suggesting why not: politics.

The truth is that through the reconciliation process, the U.S. Senate has the needed votes now to enact impactful climate change policy. And your reference to carbon pricing as being a “likely part of any successful plan to curb fossil fuels” is the key to a comprehensive climate policy.

An economy-wide price on carbon could reduce America’s emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and has broad bipartisan support from conservative groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable as well as progressive backing.

While the editorial supports a carbon price, the claim that the “politics of carbon pricing mean it may be a better fit for a later, bipartisan bill” runs afoul of the editors’ prediction that if Republicans take back control of Congress in the midterm elections, “climate action would be off the table.”

If we must act now to fight climate change, why wait until Congress won’t act? We must act now, because – simply put – we can.

Harry Brown
South Portland