Carbon tax can pay off for working families

West Virginia may seem a world away from Pittsburgh, but the similarities are greater than the differences. We share a common natural landscape marked by the Ohio River and beautiful forests, streams, and mountains — the best that our Appalachian region has to offer. We also share the legacy of bygone industries: lingering pollution, the disappearance of good jobs and the economic difficulties that have hollowed out many communities.

We also share a future of growing danger from more common recordbreaking floods, vector borne diseases, landslides and deadly heat. These are clear impacts of climate change.

The world’s best climate scientists have declared a “Code Red” warning that directs us to take immediate action or face rapidly worsening consequences. We all have a common stake in working to limit the warming that is coming our way, to preserve what we can of our corner of the world for the generations to come.

Fortunately, we have a means at hand to help with the climate crisis, to improve public health and to build an economy for the 21st century. We also have Democratic Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, whose party has made a commitment to addressing the climate crisis, who can make this happen.

The most effective and least expensive way to make a big difference is well known among leading climate scientists and economists: It’s time for a corporate tax on greenhouse gas pollution that ratchets up every year as we ratchet back emissions. This will put America on a path to net zero pollution by 2050. It’s true that if done poorly, taxing corporate polluters would mean that they simply pass along the cost to consumers, shifting the burden to those who can least afford it. However, there is a better way: Returning money from the corporate polluter tax directly to families through Carbon Cashback dividends would eliminate this concern.

In this plan, low- and middle-income households would be protected from rising energy costs by a monthly tax rebate, not unlike the new monthly child tax credit, called a Carbon Cashback. According to Yale Climate Connections research, support for such a policy has increased to 67% as of December 2020.

An annually rising corporate polluter tax would actually boost economies of fossil fuel intensive states by spurring new investments and allowing us to protect our energy veterans — former employees of fossil fuel companies. Our region’s fossil fuel workers have kept our homes lit and warm for over the past 150 years. They deserve to be respected, honored and protected as we must move rapidly to cleaner and safer sources of energy, and so as much as 20% of the funds collected could pay for retraining and employing workers in cleaning up after polluters and to build a better, renewable energy economy.

And, with our windy ridges, both Pennsylvania and West Virginia have the best combined wind potential on this side of the Mississippi, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Historically, investments in wind energy have suffered from whiplash created by frequent policy reversals. Cleaner and safer energy investments will flow to our region once investors see a predictable path forward.

Taxing corporate polluters is the right step to take for purely economic reasons, but the benefits are far more than simply financial. Reductions in emissions will help clear our air and heal our environment. The American Lung Association’s 2020 “State of the Air” report found the Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, Pa.-Ohio-W.Va., metro area tied for the eighth-most polluted in the nation for its year-round average levels of fine particle pollution. Residents of both Pennsylvania and West Virginia would dramatically benefit from cleaner air through reductions in asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer, saving potentially thousands of lives.

Climate action requires changes to how we make energy, how we farm and how we manage forests. Taxing corporate polluters and paying all of us with monthly Carbon Cashback credits is the most effective and least costly step forward to a better future. Sens. Casey and Manchin, both from states with a long history of fossil fuel use, have the opportunity to protect our children and leave a legacy they can be proud of.