A group of Marin residents will travel to Washington, D.C., this month to urge members of Congress to pass a revenue-neutral carbon fee and dividend.
But before setting off to lobby Congress, the group convinced the Marin County Board of Supervisors last week to pass a resolution endorsing their cause.
“I will have that much more confidence with your wind in my sails,” said David Kunhardt, a Corte Madera solar energy developer and one of the Marin residents making the trip.
The plan that the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, or CCL, is asking Congress to adopt calls for a national tax on fossil fuels based on the amount of carbon the fuel emits when burned. All of the resulting tax revenue — estimated by Regional Economic Models Inc. to amount to $600 billion by the 2030s — would be returned to households in equal shares. The plan also calls for import duties on carbon-based products from countries lacking comparable carbon pricing.
“This three-part policy addresses climate, affordability and competitiveness,” said Robert Archer of Ross, who is also making the trip. Archer is a retired energy economist for the United States Agency for International Development.
Kunhardt said about 1,200 CCL members from around the nation will attend a conference in Washington, D.C., from June 10 to 12. On June 13, about 900 CCL members will spend the day meeting with members of Congress and their staffs.
Another member of the Marin contingent, Peter Joseph of San Anselmo, a retired emergency physician, told the supervisors, “The politicians are frightened of standing up to the fossil fuel industry. That is why it’s very important that you adopt this resolution and send a signal to Congress.”
The board approved the resolution unanimously.
“As much as we’re doing locally to combat climate change, we really have to adopt a national perspective here,” said Supervisor Damon Connolly. “This is an opportunity for bipartisanship. There are a number of Republicans who are stepping up on this issue.”
In February, a group of Republican elder statesmen — including former secretary of state James Baker, former secretary of state George Shultz and Henry Paulson, a former treasury secretary — called for President Trump to enact a $40-per-ton carbon tax.
But Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said, “Those people don’t cast votes in the United States Congress, therein lies the problem. We could find a lot of high-profile Republicans who are no longer in office that would do the right thing on this issue; unfortunately inside the halls of Congress right now you’d be hard-pressed to find a single Republican who would vote to price carbon.”
Nevertheless, Huffman sees value in CCL’s lobbying effort.
“They are laying the foundation for something we all know we have to do and that is start putting a price on carbon,” Huffman said. “The politics can change. Politics certainly aren’t going to change if nobody tries.”
There were some dissenters, however, at Tuesday’s meeting.
Jim Bitter of Mill Valley cast doubt on the reality of climate change.
“The temperature of the earth has been going up and down for thousands of years,” Bitter said.
Stephen Nestel of Marinwood said, “The most important thing about the carbon tax is it’s a tax. If you believe in equity, if you believe in fairness, you must be concerned about the tax aspect.”
Supervisor Kate Sears said that it was reasonable to raise the question of what effect such a tax would have on middle- and lower-income households, but she noted that the tax dividend addresses that issue.
Proponents of the carbon fee say the dividend would result in two-thirds of Americans breaking even or coming out ahead economically.
Supervisor Katie Rice said, “I’m not really hopeful about this administration doing anything around addressing climate change. But I think we have to continue to keep the pressure on.”
She added, “Folks who think that carbon in the atmosphere is not costing us on a daily business, you’ve got blinders on.”
