Sen. Orrin Hatch has decried EPA’s Clean Power Plan, saying it will cost jobs and raise utility bills. At a town hall meeting earlier this year, Sen. Mike Lee said that even if global warming was real and caused by humans, he would never vote to halt it on the backs of the poor. I wholeheartedly agree with these sentiments. Yet, I also feel an urgency to address global warming, and I don’t think it has to be costly.
I would ask our senators to propose a conservative, market-based alternative to the Clean Power Plan: a steadily rising price on carbon with the revenue returned as a dividend to American households. It will not be long before utilities switch to alternative fuels because they will become cheaper than coal. But the poor and middle class will be protected from rising utility rates by the monthly dividend they receive. An independent study from the Citizens’ Climate Lobby showed that this approach would even add millions of jobs to our economy.
I hope politicians of all stripes give this approach a serious objective look. It will lead us to a safer future — both for our economy and the environment.
Steve Glaser
Holladay