Earth Equity News

NYC Mayor Bloomberg, Economists, Greens Tell Ways & Means: Price Carbon Upstream, Distribute Revenues to Consumers. By James F. Handley, Carbon Tax Center, September 21, 2008. "The 'fierce urgency' of the climate crisis compels action, said Rep. John Larson (D-CT) at Thursday's House Ways and Means Committee's packed hearing on climate change revenue measures. Hurricane Ike's devastation of coastal Texas imparted deeper meaning to Martin Luther King's phrase. Witnesses pointed to storm-related damage as one of many ways in which failure to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that drive global warming will destroy ecosystems and economies alike. Citing the effectiveness and simplicity of a carbon tax, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged Congress to tax fossil fuel producers upstream, and distribute revenue downstream to consumers by reducing payroll taxes. A carbon tax would impose a cost proportional to carbon emissions, but because revenue distribution would not be linked to consumption, the system would "use capitalism" to create broad incentives for energy conservation and alternative energy, Bloomberg said... The climate crisis is 'a major threat to national security,' declared Jerome Ringo of the Apollo Alliance. Having just been in Louisiana and Texas, Ringo said average people aren't talking about the Wall Street meltdown, they're asking 'why they've been hit with so many category 5 storms; climate change comes up in almost every conversation.' Ringo called for Congress to push the U.S. to a green jobs economy by funding public transportation and infrastructure. He warned that emissions trading could mean 'rich companies get richer' and asked that carbon revenues be dedicated to training and investment in alternative energy... Peter Barnes urged Congress to put cap-and-trade auction revenue where it will do the most good both politically and economically --into a direct monthly dividend to each U.S. resident along the lines of the Alaska Permanent Fund. A dividend would offset economic effects on consumers and also build the broad political support needed to support climate legislation, Barnes said."