July 2017 Green News from Laurie Dameron monthly music newsletter and Green News
Citizen's Climate Lobby Focuses On One Thing!
I
have heard about Citizens’ Climate Lobby for some years, but always thought it
was an organization that works on legislation for many kinds of environmental
issues. I learned otherwise when I finally attended a CCL meeting, where Susan
Secord (Boulder, Colorado Chapter) explained what CCL is about. "Citizens’
Climate Lobby is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots advocacy organization
focused on national policies to address climate change."
Since
it began in 2007, it has zeroed in on getting its carbon fee and dividend legislative
proposal passed. It works by training ordinary citizen volunteers to build
relationships with elected government officials, the media, and their local community.
Right away, I thought what a great thing to be so focused!
The
evening I attended the meeting, CCL volunteers were preparing to travel to Washington, D.C., at
their own expense, to lobby Congressional representatives—35 members from Colorado, 1,300 members from the entire U.S.! I always thought lobbyists stood outside
the Capitol building and grabbed politicians when they walked by. Yes, I
have a lot to learn! CCL volunteers actually make appointments ahead of time
and then meet with Senators and House Representatives. This June, CCL
volunteer lobbyists visited over 500 members of Congress!
Although
there have been a number of carbon tax proposals made in the last few years,
CCL wants to institute a carbon fee. A fee differs from a tax—a tax has
the purpose of raising revenue, whereas a fee is to recover the costs
of providing a service. CCL’s preferred climate solution is "a
national, revenue-neutral carbon fee-and-dividend system (CF&D) [that] would
place a predictable, steadily rising price on carbon, with all fees collected
minus administrative costs returned to households as a monthly energy
dividend."
CCL
fully understands that the majority of science has substantiated climate change,
which is gravely endangering health and poses catastrophic impacts to
human civilization. We MUST get the CO2 in our atmosphere down from
over 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million!
If
passed, CCL’s CF&D proposal would greatly benefit the economy, our health,
the health of our environment, and national security.
How
exactly would the CF&D system work? Basically, there would be a fee on
fossil fuels and other greenhouse gases at the source (mine, well,
port of entry), starting out at a low of $15 per ton collected by
the U.S. Treasury. The fee would go up at least $10 per ton each following
year. Then each household in the U.S.A. would receive
an equal monthly dividend to offset the costs of
transitioning to a greenhouse-gas-free economy. The dividend would increase yearly,
stimulating the economy as well as increasing the demand for cleaner energies,
which would become more affordable. And we’d be well on our way to a fully
clean energy economy!
At
first, I thought the equal dividend sounded unfair. What if my neighbors use
much more energy than my household? Well, they might, but they will pay
for it in the long run. If electricity and gas prices rise, there will be
much more incentive to conserve.
As I searched the Internet for pros and cons of
this system, something that caught my attention was that often low-income
households live in homes that are less energy-efficient; therefore, an equal
dividend might not seem fair. Of course, there's always controversy when it
comes to anything, let alone legislation. A carbon tax model as part of Australia’s
Clean Energy Act of 2011
was repealed in 2014. There has been a carbon tax in British Columbia
since 2008, where there is still controversy as to whether or not it has
decreased gas consumption. But keep in mind that the models for a tax
and a fee are different. You'll have to do some homework yourself, but I am
confident that Citizens’ Climate Lobby, working side by side with
bipartisan political support, will iron out the details to make this
an effective plan for fighting climate change.
You
can help by writing your House Representatives
and urge them to join the caucus. You can find your legislators here: http://leg.colorado.gov/legislators/.
Or just write your short personal story to your House Representatives and
Senators to let them know why they should act on climate change!
Simply
joining one of CCL’s 418 chapters and 72,000 members worldwide will help (nothing
is required of you to join)! Just click on the red JOIN CCL button at the top
of its website: https://citizensclimatelobby.org.
This is HUGE! I urge all of you who read this to
do some more research and join this far-reaching, influential organization at a
critical time in our history. After you join, you will get the CCL newsletter
full of informative articles. Surely there will be an upcoming CCL event soon
where you too, can attend, ask questions, and learn—just as I did!
YOU ARE A
PART OF THE SOLUTION!!!
