http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/21567-we-need-a-carbon-tax-and-we-need-it-now
Time for Big Oil to Pay for Its Pollution
Thursday, 30 January 2014 16:07
By The Daily Take, The Thom Hartmann Program | Op-Ed
We need a carbon tax, and we need it now.
During his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, President Obama talked
a lot about climate change, and how important it is that we stop using
19th century energy forms and start using 21st century sources of energy.
The President said that, "Over the past eight years, the United States
has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on
Earth. But we have to act with more urgency – because a changing climate
is already harming western communities struggling with drought, and
coastal cities dealing with floods."
He went on to say that, "Climate change is a fact. And when our
children's children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to
leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I
want us to be able to say yes, we did."
President Obama specifically addressed carbon pollution, saying that he
had directed his administration to start working more with states to set
new standards for the levels of carbon pollution that can be pumped into
our skies.
While that's a good start, we need to be taking more definitive steps to
curb carbon pollution associated with burning fossil fuels that causes a
whole bunch of problems in addition to climate change.
When fossil-fuel based carbon pollution first became a talking point, we
learned about how bad the health effects of air pollution were.
Then, we learned about the health ailments it can cause, things like
lung cancer and asthma and heart disease.
And most recently, we learned that carbon pollution from burning fossil
fuels is drastically altering our environment, driving global warming,
and contributing to more severe weather across the globe.
But while we have learned more and more about the effects of carbon
pollution, not once have we asked the fossil fuel industry and other
carbon emitters to pay to clean up their waste.
Instead, we have been footing the bill.
The fossil fuel industry is the only industry that doesn't pay to clean
up its own waste.
Instead, they profit of off the negative externalities - that waste -
that comes with our nation's addiction to 19th century fossil fuels.
Externalities reduce the costs of business for a corporation, which
means increased profits.
So, the fossil fuel industry will do anything to protect these
externalities, because it means that they can dump their trash (carbon
dioxide) on you and me without having to pay a dime for it, all the
while seeing their profits skyrocket.
A recent study by the TEEB for Business Coalition found that globally,
the top 100 environmental externalities cost the world-wide economy
nearly $4.7 trillion each year.
That $4.7 trillion includes the costs of greenhouse gas emissions, the
depletion of natural resources, the costs of climate change, the costs
of cleaning up from climate-change driven severe weather events, and the
costs of pollution-related health problems.
In fact, back in 2013, researchers in Europe released two separate
studies, that revealed that fossil fuel-based carbon pollution can
directly cause lung cancer, and can even worsen heart conditions and
heart failure.
And countless other studies have detailed fossil fuel-driven carbon
pollution's role in driving up cases of asthma and other health issues.
Right now, the fossil fuel industry has no incentive to change its ways.
No incentive to stop flooding our skies with pollution, and no incentive
to stop profiting off their negative externalities.
And to make matters worse, we are funding the fossil fuel industry's
polluting ways.
Because of our out-of-whack tax policies, we are forking over more than
$4 billion each year in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.
And when you're getting $4 billion each year from the government,
there's not much incentive to change what you're doing.
In his speech on Tuesday, President Obama called for end to those
subsidies for Big Oil, saying, "Let's continue that progress with a
smarter tax policy that stops giving $4 billion a year to fossil fuel
industries that don't need it, so that we can invest more in fuels of
the future that do."
But while we're closing tax loopholes and cutting off subsidies to Big
Oil, let's have that industry pay for the costs of its pollution with a
carbon tax.
As soon as a carbon tax is introduced, not only will carbon pollution
decrease, but all of the clean and green energy alternatives to fossil
fuels will become economically viable, because fossil fuels will be more
expensive to produce.
Carbon taxes are already popular over in Europe.
Sweden for example charges $150 per ton of carbon pollution dumped into
the skies, and it's working wonders to decrease carbon pollution in that
country.
In the United States, a carbon tax would only be around $10 to $25 per
ton. Just think how successful that could be.
Even China has started a carbon-trading scheme, in hopes of cutting back
on its high levels of pollution.
Every day that America's fossil fuel industry pumps carbon pollution our
skies, people are getting sicker, our environment is deteriorating, and
climate change is speeding up.
It's time to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, and make the
transition from 19th century energy sources to 21st century energy
sources like solar, wind, and geothermal.
Once we put a tax on carbon that reflects its true cost, fossil fuels
will go from being the cheapest energy source to one of the most
expensive, and the marketplace will naturally drive everybody towards
renewable energy.
Call your members of Congress, and tell them that we need a carbon tax
today.
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