Letter to the editor: Bipartisan climate effort encouraging
With a 92-8 vote, the U.S. Senate on June 25 passed the Growing Climate Solutions Act (GCSA) and sent the bill to the House, where there are 18 Democrats and 14 Republicans already co-sponsoring the legislation.
The executive director of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Mark Reynolds, has said, “In times like these, Americans need to see that our elected leaders can work together to solve our biggest problems. ... The passage of this bill is an encouraging example of productive bipartisan effort on climate.”
Mother Nature doesn’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat. She’s been sending us signals for 70 years, ever more urgently as time has passed, that humanity must take action to undo the damage that we have done to the planet. GCSA will provide a way for farmers, in Western Pennsylvania and all across America, to get paid for sequestering carbon dioxide in the soil. This is the first step to reduce fossil fuel emissions in the agriculture sector, which contribute 10% of total emissions in the U.S.
So please contact your representative’s office and urge him or her to help quickly pass GCSA in the House. And while you’re at it, tell him/her you support the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (House Resolution 2307). That legislation will “put a price on carbon” with an increasing fee on emissions at the source (mine, well, port of entry) and return the net proceeds as a monthly dividend to all Americans. Most families will wind up with money in their pockets. Learn more at www.energy innovationact.org.
Bruce Cooper
Cranberry Township
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