Letter: Climate strategy

To the editor:

Citizens’ Climate Lobby recently sent 800 volunteers to visit more than 500 House and Senate offices in Washington. I was one of the 800. This was our opening in those meetings: “We’re here to talk about a policy that can grow the economy, add jobs, increase our competitiveness with China and make our air and water cleaner.” The policy is to place a gradually rising fee on carbon and return the revenue to households. We also shared the results of a nonpartisan study showing this policy would cut CO2 emissions in half within 20 years, while adding 2.8 million jobs and saving 13,000 lives annually because of reduced air pollution.  

Here’s what we know about climate change: 97 percent of climate scientists are convinced, based upon the evidence, that human-caused global warming is happening.

In the past year, the propensity among congressional Republicans to dispute climate science has waned. We found that the unspoken agreement seemed to be: Let’s not argue about the science; let’s talk about solutions and where we might find common ground.

In most instances, there was keen interest, active listening, productive discussions and — in some cases — expressions of support for our proposal. By returning all revenue, we accomplish two things: Keep the federal government from getting bigger and add jobs (by putting money into the pockets of people who will spend it).  

Sept. 24, the day Pope Francis speaks to Congress, would be the perfect time for Republicans to introduce a carbon fee and dividend bill.