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Vail Daily letter: Market-based solution

The elections are over (cue deep sighs of relief); in the new year we’ll be represented in Congress by Cory Gardner, Michael Bennet and Scott Tipton.

My hope for the next Congress is that both parties will spend less time on politics and more on policies that actually solve the big problems before us. Not everything needs to be a partisan issue, where one party feels it has to stake out the opposite stance of the other.

For example: Climate change. It’s ridiculous that we allow this issue to be framed as something that you’re either for or against. Everyone should be against climate change. As a state, we can’t afford the impacts to our recreation and agriculture sectors from warming and drought; as a nation, we’ll be bankrupted by the costs of keeping the rising sea out of Florida and New York City.



We voters sent Gardner et al. to Washington to solve problems, and if they have to work across the aisle, so much the better! A policy that has bipartisan support has a much better chance of succeeding.

Regarding climate change, there is a policy that both parties can get behind. It’s called “carbon fee and dividend,” and it involves putting a steadily rising price on fossil fuels and then returning all revenues equally to American households.

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It’s a market-based solution that doesn’t grow government, doesn’t add regulations, and doesn’t pick winners and losers. And economic modeling suggests it actually increases jobs and GDP — in other words, it’s worth doing for the economic benefits alone, whether or not you believe in climate change.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby is working with Republicans and Democrats alike to enact carbon fee and dividend legislation in the next Congress. Please join us in this hopeful work.

Dave Reed

Carbondale


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