Smart things the new Congress could do
WHEN Congress focuses on symbols rather than substance, everybody loses. The truth is that building Keystone is not economically essential to the US. The new US Congress' first agenda item, when Republican control began this week, was passing a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. This manoeuvre failed late last year, but with Republicans now in control of the Senate, it's expected they can get a bill to the desk of the president - who has already said he'll veto it. There may be many reasons to object to another Keystone vote - including the fact that the Keystone XL legislation singles out one company for special treatment - but perhaps the biggest objection is that it is really just a symbol. For environmentalists, it symbolises the increasingly urgent need to keep fossil fuels in the ground. For Republicans, it symbolises everything they hate about how environmentalists seek to block industrial projects.
But when Congress focuses on symbols rather than substance, everybody loses. The truth is that building Keystone is not economically essential to the US (sorry, Republicans), but stopping it is also not, in the view of many scientists, going to do a tonne to save the climate (sorry, greens).
Either way, the last thing America actually needs is another Keystone debate. But there are really helpful things Congress could be doing instead to protect the environment and boost the economy. Here are four of them. Pass a national carbon tax Later in this congressional session, we're expecting a brutal fight over the Obama administration's plans to regulate greenhouse gas emis- sions from coal-fired power plants. But here's the thing: This fight could be easily avoided if Congress would simply pass a law to deal with these emissions, and thus preempt EPA's activity. A growing economists' consensus says the best way to do this is to put a tax on carbon, and then let the power of the market do its work.
By passing a carbon tax, we could not only avoid the fight over the regulations. We could actually generate new revenue that could be used for any number of beneficial purposes - including cutting every last American a monthly paycheck.
This, incidentally, would likely have a much more beneficial economic effect than Keystone XL would. For instance, one study commissioned by the Citizens Climate Lobby found that with a $10 (Dh36.7) per tonne carbon tax (rising $10 per year), and with 100 per cent of the revenue returned to Americans in the form of a dividend, the economy could gain as many as 2.8 million jobs over 20 years.
Take advantage of low gas prices to fix aging highway infrastructure Nationally averaged gasoline prices are on a record plunge right now, having fallen for over 100 days straight and over $1.00 per gallon of regular gas. That means that people are paying shockingly less than they're used to for gas, which in turn creates a rare opening for raising the current 18 cent national gasoline tax - which has not been raised in two decades, but which is vital to restoring the ailing Highway Trust Fund. In fairness, some have suggested that a better way to find funds to take care of our roads is a mileage-based highway user fee. But the same story goes: Driving has just gotten a lot cheaper, yet our highway infrastructure is in rough shape. So now's the moment for Congress to move to make driving a lot better in this country, and to set our infrastructure on a more financially sound footing.