To the editor:

Even though the United States has a new administration with bold plans to address climate change, Congress must play a role in approving legislation. Such legislation must have bipartisan support to accomplish meaningful change.

The Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a national nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy climate change organization, has crafted just such legislation: the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (HR763). This legislation is a carbon-fee and dividend solution. In short, it would put an economy-wide tax on carbon. Money collected from fossil fuel producers would be collected, then redistributed as “a carbon cash-back payment” to all citizens to be used however they like, which would protect low and middle-income people who might not be as easily able to weather the transition to a carbon-free economy.

Not only will the money generated from the legislation create clean-energy jobs, it will also clean the air across the country, which will be especially beneficial to communities of color who have suffered the worst effects of CO2 emissions. Also, the legislation’s simplicity makes it more amenable to fossil fuel companies, which can remain stable while adjusting their practices over time.

Kansans must now use our voices clearly and often to insist that our representatives join the 80 Congresspeople already in support of this bill. Our lives and the lives of generations to come depend on it.

Kelly Barth,

Lawrence