Letter to the editor: Put a price on carbon

Along with other committees, the Senate Finance Committee is busy writing language to be included in the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill that will hopefully contain a large number of measures meant to battle the climate crisis that is affecting so much of the planet right now.

Sen. Bob Casey is a member of the committee. It is responsible, among other things, for deciding on how the government collects revenue. And so, if we are to”put a price on carbon,” as the membership of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), most economists and many businesses want to see happen, enabling language for a carbon price must come from the Senate Finance Committee.

CCL advocates a carbon fee and dividend process. An increasing fee is placed on fossil-fuel emissions at the source (mine, well, port of entry) and the revenue collected is returned to all Americans as a monthly dividend check. We believe that enough of the revenue must be returned to citizens to keep at least the lowest 40% on the income scale “whole,” where the dividend offsets the increase in cost of carbon-based products.

I urge you to quickly contact Casey’s office at 202-224-6324 or www.casey.senate.gov/contact/share to let him know that a carbon price must be included in the budget reconciliation bill if we are to leave a livable planet for our children and grandchildren.

Do it today.

Bruce Cooper

Cranberry Township

The writer is group leader of the Slippery Rock chapter of CCL.