Earth Day, April 22, is just around the corner. This is a good time to remind ourselves that Alaska is not immune to climate change. We’re experiencing it all over the state.
Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a bipartisan, volunteer group of citizens working together all over the country and the world to address climate change. Their legislative proposal gives me hope because it has growing bipartisan support, is market driven, revenue neutral, quick to implement, will create jobs, and promotes international economic and political stability.
Here is CCL’s basic proposal:
1) Fee — a revenue-neutral CO2 fee on fossil fuel producers as far “upstream” as possible, increased annually as it’s phased in.
2) Dividend — similar to our Permanent Fund Dividend but returned monthly to all Americans. Two-thirds of American households would get more money back through the dividend than they would pay in higher fuel costs.
3) Border adjustment or carbon equalizer fee — seven of the 10 largest economies in the world already have this in place. It discourages companies from moving to countries with less regulation, creates jobs and economic growth while providing stability.
You can learn more about CCL and its proposal for mediating the effects of climate change at www.citizensclimatelobby.org
It’s great to have a path that is positively hopeful and closer at hand than you might imagine.
Libby Stortz
Member of Sitka’s chapter of Citizen’s Climate Lobby