From the Mind of Trevor Stone

The Boulder Daily Camera published my letter to the editor about why a carbon tax would be more effective than a wealth tax at fighting climate change, in response to an opinion piece published last week.

Tom Mayer’s call for a wealth tax rightly points out that the wealthiest 10% of the population step with a disproportionately large carbon footprint, and justly calls for those who contribute most to climate change to pay a large share of the bill to fix the problem. As a well-to-do and climate-concerned Boulderite, I’d be happy to pay a higher tax to cover my share of excess pollution. But there’s a more effective way to do it than a wealth tax.

A wealth tax would take the same 2% from the owner of a solar panel company as it takes from the owner of a coal mine. A wealth tax would value a $5,000 car the same as a $5,000 bicycle. And a wealth tax wouldn’t see a dollar from someone who spends all their money on international flights, because money spent on consumption doesn’t accumulate as wealth. In other words, a wealth tax doesn’t reward people for reducing their climate impact, just for owning assets, no matter how clean or dirty.

A carbon tax would make the biggest climate polluters pay the biggest price while simultaneously creating an incentive to reduce carbon emissions and thereby save money. The folks who make their money from fossil fuels will be on the hook for the damage they cause while entrepreneurs leading the clean energy transition will see a reward. An electric bicycle will become a better investment than a gas-powered car, and carbon-intensive products will be more expensive than sustainably built ones.

The wealthy have bags of tricks to hide wealth to avoid tax. A carbon pollution fee at the mine or well would be easy to enforce and reward people for doing the right thing by reducing emissions.

I’d like to ask you for a favor. Feel free to say no :-)
Please take five minutes to email or call your two U.S. Senators and ask them to support carbon pricing. If you don’t have your senators on speed dial, a group I volunteer with has a tool to make this an easy contact. Just visit cclusa.org/senate

If you’re contacting a Democratic senator, please ask them to put a price on carbon in this year’s budget reconciliation. This is the most likely path for ambitious climate legislation this year, and Democrats are in the driver’s seat.
If you’re contacting a Republican senator, please ask them to support putting a price on carbon this year, because it will address climate change while strengthening the U.S. economy. While the Republican party is a little behind the Democrats on bold climate action, several GOP senators have voiced support for carbon pricing. It’s a policy they can support without losing their conservative credentials.

If you’re feeling unsure about calling Congress, I’ve shared a video of me making the call. I’ve always felt awkward on the phone, and if I can do it so can you! Pro tip: if you call after business hours you can leave a voicemail, and your support will still be noticed.

If you’re able to send two emails or make two calls, THANK YOU! If you’d like some extra credit, ask at least three friends to call their senators. Feel free to forward this post to them if you’d like.
Support from constituents gives senators and representatives the reassurance they need to do what’s right, and I’ve spent a lot of energy in the last five years focused on demonstrating to Congress that carbon pricing is popular. Your email or call to your Senator means a lot to me. You rock!

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If you’d like to learn a little more about carbon pricing, here’s my quick explainer:

When historians write the history of the 2020s, how America responded to climate change at the beginning of the decade will play a big role. We face big challenges associated with the climate, and big action is needed to stop greenhouse gas pollution. The current U.S. Congress is in the best position in over ten years to ensure the biggest emitters shift course and drastically reduce their use of fossil fuels.

A price on carbon is one effective way to quickly reduce greenhouse gas pollution. A carbon fee would be assessed on coal, oil, and natural gas; low at first, but getting bigger every year. This will create an incentive to switch to cleaner forms of energy; companies that switch to clean power will be able to outcompete those who pollute more. The impact of higher fossil fuel prices on lower income folks can be offset by a carbon dividend: the collected fees are divided into equal amounts and distributed to every American each month. Since folks with lower incomes usually have a much smaller carbon footprint than people and companies who can afford to consume more, the carbon dividend is an effective way to make polluters pay to solve the problem while protecting folks who would otherwise have trouble with higher energy prices. Finally, to prevent businesses from just shipping carbon pollution (and jobs) to other countries, a carbon border adjustment can apply the carbon fee to imports from countries which don’t have a carbon price, and rebate the fee paid by U.S. exporters shipping to those countries. This incentivizes other countries around the world to adopt a carbon price to stay competitive. In fact, the E.U. just announced details of their carbon border adjustment, which has inspired China to step up the pace of their own carbon pricing plans. That’s right, the U.S. is currently lagging China in adoption of the most effective solution to climate change.

This idea has broad support: IPCC scientists report that a strong price on carbon will be necessary to keep the world below 1.5 degrees warming. Over 3500 economists—liberal, conservative, progressive, and libertarian—have endorsed the carbon fee & dividend plan, the biggest joint statement in the history of the profession. Recent editorials in major newspapers have called on Congress to pass a carbon price. More than 1000 businesses, plus hundreds of nonprofits, faith groups, and local governments, have endorsed the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, which could be the language used in a budget reconciliation bill.

For the past four and a half years I’ve volunteered with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, the largest carbon pricing advocacy group in the country—and probably the world. We educate the public and community leaders about the benefits of the carbon fee & dividend approach and the importance of climate action, and have gathered support from over 200,000 people around the world. CCL organizes several meetings each year with every Congressional office. In the last year and a half, thousands of people have been empowered to lobby their own Member of Congress via videoconference or over the phone. I’ve found lobby meetings with Congressional staff to be very personally rewarding. I truly believe that action on climate change can help bring a politically fractured America closer together so that we can collaborate on the big challenges of the 2020s. Behind closed doors there’s more interest in tackling these problems than you might think if you watch cable TV.

If you’re a fan of different climate solutions, that’s great! There’s lots of work to be done over the next three decades if we want to “hang on to the holocene” as Adam Frank put it. We need to pivot our electrical system, rethink transportation, improve millions of buildings, restore forests, shift agricultural practices, invent new technology, and build resilient communities, all while responding to emergencies and addressing injustice. I’m excited about carbon pricing because it’s the biggest step we can take, and it affects several emission sources at once, and it’s compatible with and complimentary to most other climate solutions. If regenerative agriculture or ending fugitive methane emissions are more up your alley, that’s awesome. To solve climate change we need a diverse team with a lot of specialized skills and interests.