This commentary is by Bob Ciernia of Wilder and Beth Zigmund, M.D., of South Burlington, an associate professor of radiology at the University of Vermont Medical Center. Both are volunteers for the nonpartisan advocacy group Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
Vermont’s automotive and home heating sectors will require “drastic changes” to meet the state’s emissions targets, as reported in VTDigger recently.
Sandra Levine was spot-on in her VTDigger commentary May 14 in regard to the Vermont Climate Council: Individual actions alone, however gratifying, will be insufficient to meet the climate crisis we are facing.
However, when our own pocketbooks are in play — whether we live in Vermont, Ohio, or Alabama — we pay attention. That’s why the federal Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (HR 2307) will work. The act offers a carrot and a stick.
The stick is a fee that puts an increasing price tag on gas, coal and oil products over time. The carrot? The cash-back check that covers increased costs. Families and businesses won’t take long to figure out that the fewer carbon-based products they consume, the further ahead they come out.
When everyone’s pocketbooks are in play, they’ll see it’s in their own interest to cut their carbon expenses. No complicated formulas or directives. No opaque and complicated carbon offsets.
A national carbon fee, coupled with a dividend program, is an efficient solution. Money collected from fossil fuel companies would return as a “cash-back payment” to every American to spend without restrictions. The cash-back feature would protect low- and middle-income Americans from bearing the burden of the energy transition. Studies show that the monthly cash-back payments are enough to cover increased costs of 85% of American households, including 95% of the least wealthy.
The International Energy Agency warns, “Climate pledges to date — even if fully achieved — would fall well short of what is required” to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change. Preventing a global temperature rise exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius calls for a “massive and immediate deployment” of green energy technologies as well as a “global push to accelerate innovation.“ An effective response to global warming requires engagement at all levels of government and society.
Governments, big businesses and financiers are, in fact, increasingly heeding the climate threat. On May 20, President Biden issued an executive order on climate-related financial risk, acknowledging the “intensifying impacts of climate change” on “publicly traded securities, private investments and companies” and marshaling federal agencies to mitigate the economic risks of climate change.
On May 26, for the first time in its history, Exxon Mobil lost a costly, intense battle with an activist investment group, Engine No. 1, which secured two seats on Exxon’s board of directors to propel the oil behemoth toward carbon neutrality by 2050.
Central banks around the world, including the European Central Bank and Bank of England, are laying plans to steer their financial systems away from fossil fuels via their monetary policies. The banks recognize the potentially catastrophic economic impacts of a business-as-usual approach to fossil fuel investment.
While these business and financial trends are hopeful, a steadily rising price on carbon must be part of the solution. Thousands of economists (including dozens of Nobel laureates) say carbon pricing is “the most cost-effective lever to reduce carbon emissions at the scale and speed that is necessary.” We need to get everyone moving in the same direction, thinking about how we can each cut our expenses while cutting our emissions.
Learn more at https://energyinnovationact.org and then tell your lawmakers you will do your part and you expect them to do theirs: Make HR 2307 law. On June 15 and 16, concerned Vermonters will meet with our in-state congressional offices about this crucial policy. Sens. Sanders and Leahy and Rep. Welch must advocate for passage of carbon fee legislation this year.
