Address climate change

Lost in the more media-enticing national news is the recent announcement by the Trump administration of the Affordable Clean Energy rule to replace the Obamaera Clean Power Plan.

The Clean Power Plan was designed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants by 32 percent by 2030.

The new plan would reduce 2005 CO2 emissions levels by only 1.5 percent by 2030, effectively stopping any progress on emissions reductions and would increase carbon emissions and lead to up to 1,400 premature deaths annually.

This is not the time to roll back efforts to limit the threat of climate change, given the wildfires, heat waves and other climate-related disasters that are currently happening.

Since so little has been taken into consideration of the effects of this rollback, other than to boost the coal industry, this once again demonstrates the downside of attempting to address climate change with executive action.

As has been often stated the best course is for Congress is to enact a bi-partisan market-based solution like a revenue neutral Carbon Fee and Dividend.

Such legislation would price carbon and return a dividend to households to offset the increase in prices for fossil fuel use.

Recent Yale polling shows 68 percent of Americans favor a revenue-neutral carbon tax. Hopefully after this horrific summer for so many of our states and the tremendous amounts of money being spent in our own state to mitigate the effects of climate changes it is time to address the problem at its roots: reducing the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted. Edith Cassidy Bridgeport