Climate change legislation needs congressional support

On June 19, I had the good fortune to attend the Citizens’ Climate Lobby national convention in Washington, D.C., and there were more than 800 attendees from almost every state, including three from Mississippi.

The main purpose of the gathering was to lobby our members of Congress in support of climate change legislation — hence, the name Citizens’ Climate Lobby. For two days, we learned how to explain our policy to members of Congress and their staff. We set up teams with specific roles and rehearsed what to ask and what our goals were. It was as carefully planned as a military operation.

On the third day, we fanned out to more than 500 legislative offices. All six Mississippi members of Congress were visited. I was loaded with all the scientific facts I could carry to explain why global warming was happening, how it will affect future generations and so forth.

Much to my surprise, none of the offices were interested in why it was happening or what was happening. They didn’t need convincing; they wanted to know what our policy was, how effective it would be and how it would affect jobs and the economy. They are well aware of the national concerns and the need to do something.

So we explained that our policy proposal is called Carbon Fee & Dividend and works like this: A fee is placed on fossil fuels, which starts at $15 per ton of greenhouse gas emissions, and increases yearly by $10. This drives up the costs of the worst emitters. The fees are returned to households as a dividend check. If homeowners or businesses move to a lower emitting supply, as we did when Jack Watson switched from coal to natural gas, their power bill goes down but the dividend still comes. Move to wind, solar or nuclear and it goes down even more.

This is not a tax; the government does not keep the money! To keep us competitive in the world market, a fee would be levied on imported goods to adjust the cost of those goods to reflect their carbon footprint.

CF&D eliminates the need for government regulation and provides homeowners and businesses with a predictable planning tool. In June 2015, major European oil companies asked the EU Parliament to pass similar legislation.

The United States will do something to cut greenhouse gasses. If Congress does not act, the executive branch will, and it will be in the form of more regulations, which stymie business, grow the size and power of our bureaucracy and incur huge, but hidden, costs.

If the citizens of Mississippi don’t encourage Congress to get constructively involved in solutions, we will only have ourselves to blame for the outcome.

This story was originally published July 9, 2016 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Climate change legislation needs congressional support."