Daniel Quipp is a teacher, climate change activist and community radio DJ who lives in Brattleboro.
[T]he most vulnerable people on this planet are already paying a price for free carbon pollution in the form of climate change: rising sea levels for island communities, drought, floods, the impact of living next to fracking sites, potentially deadly oil train routes or ruined mountainsides. For some of us it might mean dealing with air pollution, unsafe water or losing our ancestral homes. For all of us it will mean living on a hotter, less hospitable planet. We also pay for it in the form of a hampered democracy where our politicians are afraid to make the changes needed as they are told that tax increases are a losing proposition, and that new fossil fuel infrastructure must be built despite public opposition.
If we put a fair price on the cost of carbon pollution at the point where it is mined, drilled or brought into the country, then it is likely that energy companies will try to pass that cost onto us, the consumer. This harsh reality might make it difficult to swallow the idea of pricing carbon pollution. The question is does our distaste for what many will label as another tax on our already stretched budgets outweigh our concern over the lives of our children and our grandchildren. In my more hopeful moments I would like to think that it will not. In times of crisis people in this country have adjusted their lifestyles so that those in the future may live freely as we have. It is unlikely however that our politicians will choose to promote fair carbon pricing that addresses emissions without increasing economic inequality unless there is more than a little nudge from the people.
By making energy companies pay for their carbon pollution we will likely be encouraged to change our habits.
The United States pays far less for its gasoline than most other countries in the world. Gas prices stay artificially low because of how the U.S. chooses to tax this fuel. On the Fourth of July 2016 gas prices in the USA averaged $2.60 per gallon, whereas in the UK drivers paid $5.49, in Germany $5.66, Japan $4.51, China $3.64 and Canada $3.46. (source – globalpetrolprices.com). Here in Brattleboro transportation accounts for 46 percent of the town’s greenhouse gas emissions. Perhaps if we faced up to the true cost of gasoline and its accompanying carbon pollution we would be angered by the fact that minimum wage jobs can’t support our families, that our towns don’t provide us with practical ways for all of us (not just those who can afford to install solar panels or buy a new fuel efficient car) to reduce our carbon footprint. Perhaps the changes required by the crisis of climate change might actually lead to a more just world, rather than a world where the wealthy will do just fine and the rest of us will become increasingly desperate, anxious and powerless.
If our gas prices reflected the true cost of carbon pollution the states and the federal government would be able to use those funds as either a dividend for citizens or funding for clean, renewable energy.
By making energy companies pay for their carbon pollution we will likely be encouraged to change our habits. Perhaps we will walk more and be happier and healthier for it. Maybe by lobbying for better public transport (and then using it), we’ll develop stronger connections with those around us. By eating food that we grew ourselves in community gardens we’ll be more connected with the work of putting something good on our families dinner plates. By making our homes more energy efficient (with help from our local and state governments) we’ll be warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. By encouraging our local government to engage us about radical ways to reduce traffic in our beautiful hometown we can envision a future that we all want to be a part of (traffic free downtown anyone?). Maybe by living this way we’ll get to know our neighbors better, hopefully we’ll live happier and healthier lives, and maybe we’ll give those generations after us a story to tell about their parents and grandparents of which they can be proud.
