End businesses' reliance on fossil fuels for good

In his recently published

Marin Voice commentary (“Producing oil allows U.S. to break fossil-fuel reliance,” March 19), author Todd Hooper writes that we can reduce dependence on oil by increasing the amount we produce. But as long as we depend on oil, we'll have price shocks.

Global commodities are subject to hiccups in supply and demand. They're traded on Wall Street, which profits from the price volatility we're seeing now. A few speculators are getting very rich at our expense. This is how the system is designed to work.

If we truly want cheap energy that isn't subject to price volatility or susceptible to weaponization by corrupt nations like Russia, the answer is obvious: Replace fossil fuels with energy resources using fuels that can't be commodified, like the sun and wind.

A big, practical step toward price stability and true energy independence would be to put an annually escalating national tax on fossil fuels. Return all revenue to individuals in equal shares. Start the tax low, but raise it meaningfully every year, to give everyone a reasonable time horizon to phase into new energy sources.

The return of the revenue from the carbon tax would protect consumers from any tax costs the fossil fuel companies try to pass along. Meanwhile, businesses would rapidly innovate to squeeze fossil fuels out of their supply chains. As demand for fossil fuels drops, so will both price volatility and prices themselves.

No amount of domestic drilling can alter a worldwide commodity system designed to produce price volatility. Continuing our dependence on fossil fuels plays into the hands of maniacal despots like Russian President Vladimir Putin. I urge our congressional delegation to include a carbon tax to protect individual consumers in whatever climate measures they might work on this year.