Pandemic has given world a chance to tax carbon

The Baltimore Sun Editorial Board recently asked, “We need a sustainable economy, and we need to fight climate change. Can’t we please listen to the experts this time around?” (“Earth Day turns 50: Coronavirus pandemic should inform climate change policy,” April 22).

The simple answer is, “Yes. Of course we can!”

And what are the experts telling us? Over 3,500 economists including 27 Nobel laureates and more than 80 economists from Maryland signed a statement endorsing a steadily rising price on carbon with all revenue returned directly to U.S. citizens through equal carbon dividends. Unlike the pandemic stimulus payments which will cost the country trillions of dollars, the money for the carbon dividends will cost taxpayers nothing; it will come from the fossil fuel industry.

Economists like this carbon fee and dividend policy because their models show it will be effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the most efficient way. Businesses like the predictability of a known price on carbon so they can plan for future energy costs. As the current stimulus payments show, consumers would like the extra discretionary money from the dividend. New infrastructure and new jobs will be created when our country needs them as it recovers from this pandemic. This policy will not shock the economy because the initial price on carbon is low and the increase is gradual. But it will put the writing on the wall that the time has come to transition off increasingly expensive fossil fuels.

Just as our reduced use of fossil fuel during this pandemic is cutting air pollution, so will a carbon fee and dividend policy. Cleaner air saves thousands of lives, especially the lives of those who live closest to pollution sources and who usually have the lowest incomes. This pandemic has shown that Congress can quickly pass bipartisan legislation when we ask for it. Climate scientists are telling us there’s no time to lose. There’s a bipartisan bill in the House now with 80 cosponsors that would implement a carbon fee and dividend policy. It is the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, H.R. 763. Three Maryland congressmen are among the co-sponsors: Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, Rep. Jamie Raskin, and Rep. David Trone. Let’s call our other Maryland congressmen and ask them to cosponsor this bill, too.

A friend recently wrote, “I think this (pandemic) is a prelude to the real disaster, namely global warming. I worry about the world our grandchildren are inheriting.” In this year that Earth Day turned 50, let’s pass on a safer world to our grandchildren by passing climate change legislation. As the Sun said, “We have been given a second chance. We can avert a disaster on the horizon this time around.”

Cheryl Arney, Ellicott City