A market-based way to reduce climate change
Your article about the Union of Concerned Scientists’ study of the risks of sea level rise is very timely. As a Hilton Head Island property owner, I am very concerned about the risks and impacts the UCS study predicts.
Unfortunately, neither your article nor the full-page piece in “The Long Read” on June 22 mention the most powerful action we can take to reduce climate change.
This approach would be market-based rather than regulatory. It would put a price on carbon dioxide emissions, creating an economic incentive to reduce their use. It has received bipartisan support starting with a proposal by James Baker, George Shultz and other national leaders, and more recently by former Sens. Trent Lott and John Breaux.
It is also being supported by volunteers in 460 local chapters of the Citizens Climate Lobby. They are working to have Congress enact a bill to establish a national Carbon Fee and Dividend program.
In this program, all revenues from the fees collected on carbon in fuels would be rebated to citizens in the form of monthly dividend checks. This approach will not increase taxes available to the federal government to spend and will replace layers of government regulations. It will reduce carbon dioxide emissions and slow the rates of global warming and sea level rise.
If begun soon, it will be much more effective than costly efforts to protect our homes and businesses from the ravages of sea level rise.
Ted Heintz
Hilton Head Island
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