I’m thankful Mrs. Dingell is ready to hit the ground running, because we need her to get busy immediately and work on global warming solutions. According to the IPCC summary report released this week, we must transition off of fossil fuels by the end of this century if we want to have a decent chance of preventing catastrophic climate change.

I know Mrs. Dingell aims to protect working class families, so she will be glad to hear that Carbon Fee and Dividend will address global warming and at the same time, help out those families she so rightly cares about. What is Carbon Fee & Dividend? It is a simple and elegant solution. We charge fossil fuel companies a fee based on the amount of CO2 their product emits. The fee starts out low ($15/ton of CO2) and increases by $10/ton each year. One hundred percent of the revenue is then returned, in equal shares, as a monthly dividend to every household.

How would this help families? An economic modeling firm, Regional Economic Models, Inc., recently analyzed this proposal, which is put forth by Citizens’ Climate Lobby, and found it would significantly decrease emissions and, at the same time, grow the economy. In 10 years, we would see an increase of 2.1 million jobs, a family of 4 would get a monthly dividend of nearly $300, and emissions would decline 33 percent.

The longer we delay action, the less likely we can fix this problem, and the more those very families will be hurt.

Virginia Rogers

Ann Arbor, MI