Two of the most pressing issues facing us today are the need to address the economic costs and public health risks associated with climate change and strengthening the middle class.
Over 97 percent of climate scientists agree that our planet is warming, primarily as a result of fossil fuel combustion, and that this warming is already causing more frequent, dangerous, and expensive extreme weather events. At the same time, our middle class is struggling. While the productivity of our economy increased by 75 percent between 1979 and 2012, wage growth for middle class workers increased by only 5 percent during the same period.
I support the EPA’s carbon rule and commend President Obama for his historic leadership on this issue. But as the President himself has said, his Administration can’t solve the entirety of this challenge on its own. Congress needs to tackle both these issues. Legislation I have introduced called the Healthy Climate and Family Security Act does just that.
Specifically, the Healthy Climate and Family Security Act of 2014:
- Uses a declining cap to reduce CO2 emissions to 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050,
- Auctions carbon permits to the first sellers of oil, coal, and natural gas into the U.S. market,
- Returns 100 percent of auction proceeds to every American with a valid Social Security number in the form of a Healthy Climate Dividend,
- Includes robust border adjustment protections to ensure U.S. companies are not disadvantaged when competing against foreign competitors at home or abroad,
- Achieves additional greenhouse gas emissions reductions through the Clean Air Act and other relevant authorities.
By capping carbon emissions, selling permits, and returning the resulting revenue to everyone equally, this “Cap and Dividend” approach achieves the greenhouse gas reductions climate scientists tell us we need to prevent the dangerous consequences of climate change while boosting the purchasing power of American consumers. On an economy-wide level, the price signal placed on carbon pollution will accelerate innovation and incentivize both greater energy efficiency as well as greater use of lower-carbon energy alternatives. And on a household level, the more families are able to reduce their carbon footprint, the more they stand to gain financially.
Please share your thoughts on this legislation.
Chris: First of all, I applaud you for considering this type of legislation. My one major comment is that you should avoid the “cap and auction” (i.e., Cap and Trade)… Read more »
Dan Miller- can you be a little more clear about the difference between your preferred policy and what Congressman Van Hollen is suggesting? Note that Van Hollen’s proposal included border… Read more »
The border adjustments are the same. Also, the dividending out of the fees collected is also the same. With cap and auction, you create “pollution permits” that apply to major… Read more »
I would like to update my previous post after discussing Congressman Van Hollen’s proposal with his Chief of Staff. The Congressman’s policy, unlike Waxman Markey Cap & Trade, would collect… Read more »
Several points about this scheme: 1. Even if implemented successfully, it will not benefit the GLOBAL warming scenario that most of us believe in.. Any reduction in USA CO2 emissions… Read more »
Jack: In addition to a domestic price on carbon, Representative Van Hollen is also proposing a “Border Duty” on products coming from countries that don’t have their own fee on… Read more »
Dan, a U.S. carbon BTA would almost certainly not impel China and India to impose carbon taxes. Houser et al. explained the matter in their 2008 study “Leveling the Carbon… Read more »
Lee: I expect (or hope) that a border duty will be implemented in partnership with the EU and China. Both the EU and China are ahead of the US with… Read more »
Dan, Sorry, I don’t believe it will happen like that at all. On the contrary, there is a good chance that the border duty would be gamed. We are (presumably)… Read more »
Jack: There is no reason that a carbon duty would be gamed more or less than other duties. But since you don’t believe a border duty will help lower global… Read more »
Dan, The main effect of your scheme, and of the Congressman’s, can only be to foster socially costly rent-seeking. You talk about “potentially catastrophic” impacts of climate change. But the… Read more »
Lee: I think where we really disagree is whether climate change is a serious issue. Given the stakes — and the strong scientific agreement about the dangers — it is… Read more »
Dan, our main disagreement is not about whether climate change is a serious issue. My objection is that go-it-alone greenhouse gas control leads inevitably to net costs for the United… Read more »
Lee: If climate change is a serious issue, as you seem to agree, then continuing business-as-usual (BAU) emissions has very significant costs, so the question is not whether a carbon… Read more »
Lee: Regarding your post where you discuss some citizen’s desire to “assuage their liberal guilt.” First of all, as everyone knows, facts have a liberal bias. The fact in this… Read more »
Lee: Your objections to a Fee and Dividend (F&D) or Congressman Van Hollen’s Cap and Dividend (C&D) policy are just general objections to any government action. Cap and Trade is… Read more »
Dan, The policymaking process exacts social costs. These costs derive from many sources. Voters are often ignorant. Members of Congress serve green energy lobbyists and other rent-seekers. The executive is… Read more »
Dan said, “politicians cannot redirect any of these funds.” What an incredibly naive statement. It is not true of state lottery money promised for education, it is not true of… Read more »
Ike: You are trying to argue that any government action is futile because sometimes there is corruption or self-interest dealing. I guess we should shut down the military and stop… Read more »
Thank you Congressman Van Hollen for hosting this discussion and your work to address climate change. This is a very important issue on which the U.S., with our abundant energy… Read more »
I’m glad some intelligent people are starting to think of concrete proposals for addressing air emissions, including CO2, as well as methane, mercury, and fly ash. I believe we can… Read more »
Wilmot: I disagree with your assessment of CCS. One of our portfolio companies, Inventys Thermal Technologies, has developed a system to capture CO2 from coal and natural gas power plants… Read more »
Rep. Van Hollen’s proposal is quite intriguing. I have two doubts about it. First,is a carbon tax an effective way of bringing about necessary reductions in emissions? A carbon tax… Read more »
The cap and dividend approach is an elegant policy approach to greenhouse gas emissions. First, it sends market signals to just those industry sectors that really contribute the most carbon.… Read more »
Thanks to Representative Van Hollen for a clear, simple and fair policy proposal. I agree with Scott that it puts the burden where it belongs to reduce GHG and offsets… Read more »
Jesse Jenkins’ excellent 3-part essay at The Energy Collective shows why such carbon-pricing schemes won’t work. It begins here:
http://theenergycollective.com/jessejenkins/434246/why-does-politics-keep-getting-way-carbon-pricing-policies-part-1
The policies discussed in the links you provided are not Fee and Dividend or Cap and Dividend. When you return 100% of the revenues collected to the public, the problems… Read more »
Congressman van Hollen’s Cap and Dividend proposal meets the primary parameters of the Jenkins paper … “making smart use of the revenues generated by a carbon tax (or cap and… Read more »
It would be helpful to the efficacy of policy if policy-makers actually read and understood scientific reports instead of just believing the conventional wisdom promulgated by celebrities and the media.… Read more »
Ike: Just about everything you state in your post is incorrect. I believe this is because you source your information from people such as Judith Curry. When I type her… Read more »
Dan, Not sure how you could have missed it, but I clearly communicated my source above as the UN IPCC 2013 AR5 report. This is the most authoritative document on… Read more »
Ike: Your translation of the IPCC reports leaves something to be desired. You do not appear to understand the meaning of the probabilities and confidence values that the IPCC assigns.… Read more »
Dan, I will reiterate, the SPM is not a scientific consensus document like the full report, it is a political document that was written by the various national reps to… Read more »
Ike: You believe that your (mis)interpretation of the IPCC report is more accurate than the IPCC’s own summary of its report. I disagree. I guess we should just leave it… Read more »
Dan, You and Jim Hansen also engage in selective reporting of the facts in citing a summer death toll of 50,000 in 2003 due to a European heat wave. It… Read more »
Ike: Global warming will decrease deaths from cold, but the reduction will not make up for the increased deaths due to heat (not to mention famine, tropical diseases, etc.): http://oem.bmj.com/content/64/12/827.short… Read more »
Dan, You keep running back to the hysteria of the Gore era and cite another cherry-picked, outdated, predictive study from 2007. Why do you reject the 2013 IPCC scientific consensus… Read more »
Virginia is stepping forward as a leader in designing flood mitigation. The reason … Hampton Roads is the second most vulnerable area in the country to rising sea levels that… Read more »
Dan, I wish that you would read what I have written rather than inventing your own interpretation of it. To repeat: First, since a U.S. carbon tax plus BTA will… Read more »
Lee: A BTA will encourage, not coerce, China and other nations to implement their own carbon pricing policies. The US is the largest cumulative emitter of CO2 by far and… Read more »
Dan, When I, and others, have objected to some of your statements, you have made what seem to be quite unresponsive replies. Peter Grossman, for instance, pointed out problems with… Read more »
Lee: “Rent seeking”: The plan that I propose (Fee and Dividend) and Congressman Van Hollen proposes (Cap and Dividend) both return 100% of the revenues collected to the public on… Read more »
Dan, For heavens sakes, weren’t you watching the descent of the Waxman Markey Bill into a sordid swamp of rent-seeking? Didn’t you learn anything from it? Just as with Waxman… Read more »
Lee: Regarding your comments on the “Free Rider Problem”. Climate change is the ultimate example of the Free Rider Problem. Fossil fuel companies cause massive CO2 pollution in the atmosphere… Read more »
To set the record straight, the U.S. is NOT the largest emitter of carbon emissions globally (in terms of total tons emitted). That distinction belongs to China. In 2012, the… Read more »
Dawn: The U.S. is the largest cumulative emitter of CO2. It is true that China is now emitting more than the US on an annual basis and they will catch… Read more »
Many of us would most want to see new climate legislation introduced which would at least have some hope of passing if the key powers in Congress were rational. How… Read more »
I appreciate Congressman Van Hollen’s proposal to seriously address climate change, but I don’t believe his approach is the right one. Putting a major cap on CO2 emissions to reduce… Read more »
Dan, I can and do buy the idea that climate change poses a long-run problem. I believe that it is a greater problem for poorer countries with tropical climates and… Read more »
Lee: I find it a tad ironic that you provided a link to Fox News to try to show that my comment was “propaganda”!
Lee, just for the sake of a better conversation, would you please say what you would propose to do, if you believed that ever-increasing levels of CO2 (including ocean acidification… Read more »
In 2009, when I worked in the Office of Senator Specter, I might have agreed with Lee’s comment. The IPCC IV report stated that climate change threatened to reduce world… Read more »
Paul: I agree. And long before the green sky occurs, perhaps in just 2 or 3 decades, there may be massive droughts that will make the Dust Bowl look like… Read more »
Daniel A fair question—although I’m not sure that I can go much farther in answering it than I already have. U.S. greenhouse gas abatement, unless it is part of a… Read more »
A fair reply, thank you. Though it does seem to me that many governments are accepting serious resource costs for carbon reductions- what else is German solar policy about? And… Read more »
Daniel, I would hope that, were a larger global deal feasible, Berlin would be part of it. The strength of their green ideology and their relative dearth of fossil fuel… Read more »
Lee: The Europeans already have a carbon pricing policy, albeit, a poor one. Cap & Dividend and, better still, Fee and Dividend would be more effective policies for maintaining incentives… Read more »
Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion and provided their input!
Perhaps the central purpose of the different carbon tax schemes is to accelerate the effort to bring about a huge transition from the present fossil fuel dominated energy system. One… Read more »
I agree with Paul Werbos that CCS, low carbon fuels, and solar, among other technologies can play a big role in reducing emissions. But the bottom line is that policies… Read more »
Dan Miller’s comments are welcome, but are partly misplaced. I too am very concerned about climate change and fully agree that the damages that may derive from droughts, higher sea… Read more »
Herschel: First, you asked for references to “proof” that a Fee and Dividend policy will create jobs and grow the economy. Of course, there is no such thing as proof… Read more »
I agree with Herschel that changes in technology are our best concrete hope for deep reductions in net CO2 in the long-term. However, one should not just discard the major… Read more »
Paul:
Could you provide a link to the Ad Astra review you mentioned?
Herschel
In a decade or two politicians will realize that they had better worry about adequate, reliable electric energy because the media are taking it seriously. Scientists will spread the fact… Read more »
Albert: No need to miss the show. It’s happening now! Arctic summer sea ice volume has dropped 70% in the last 30 years. “Extremely Hot Summers” (average summer temperatures for… Read more »
Congressman Van Hollen in all honesty I think your bill will fail on two fronts. I do not think it will get passed and neither do I think it will… Read more »
I think cap and trade is seriously flawed as a concept as a global solution because it puts a most difficult questions among nations, allocation of carbon emissions allowances, up… Read more »