The Antidote to Dirty Energy Must, at Least Be Effective. Letter to the Editor by Charles Komanoff, NYTimes, June 11, 2010. “The continuing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico provides a rallying point for President Obama to push for action on climate and energy legislation. But the Kerry-Lieberman proposal in the Senate is hardly the low-carbon vehicle needed to wean our nation off fossil fuels. Neither of the bill’s sponsors has evinced a willingness to drop expansion of offshore oil drilling. Subsidies to coal and the dubious quest for carbon capture and storage will lock in continued use of this dirtiest of fuels for decades. Allowing polluters to purchase cheap carbon offsets will further delay America’s conversion to clean energy.
“If we’re serious about ending our fossil fuel dependence, we must place a direct and steadily increasing fee on carbon. Returning the revenues from that fee equally to every American household will take the sting out of rising energy costs and build public support for the higher carbon price needed to retire fossil fuels. The antidote to dirty energy doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be effective.” Charles Komanoff is director of the Carbon Tax Center.
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