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In 2018 we started our support of the Green New Deal and worked to get at least part of it incorporated in Biden's climate plan. However, after it became obvious that nothing significant on climate would be passed by the obstructionists in the US Senate we started to look for an alternative.
It was then that we read the op-ed below by Dr. James Hansen which offered much needed hope in that his plan offered a blueprint to Biden on a way he could bypass the US Senate on climate change. |
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Fighting for Our Future Fee and Dividend Is Where Hope Is: Biden Can Do This Without Congress’s Approval |
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Who is Dr. James Hansen? Dr. James Hansen was the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies for over 30 years. Along with an all-star group of scientists, he took on the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) consensus that 450ppm of CO2–and two degrees centigrade of temperature rise over pre-industrial levels were safe, and completely changed the discussion. He was the first scientist to sound the alarm on Climate Change at a 1988 congressional hearing. He would later initiate a groundbreaking climate lawsuit on behalf of children.
Fighting for Our Future: A Campaign to Jumpstart Climate Action Using Fee-and-Dividend Dr. James Hansen has put forward a proposal that offers real hope and a way around the roadblock on significant climate action in the Senate. His plan utilizes the Independent Offices Appropriations Act, which authorizes President Biden to direct the E.P.A. to put in place a carbon-fee-and-dividend structure.
In a recent Boston Globe op-ed, Dr. Hansen laid out the basic framework, which includes safeguards to ensure that all but the top 30% of income-earners would receive more in dividends than they pay in fees, thus negating a frequent criticism of carbon tax proposals as regressive.
But there are other concerns which have been raised, both in scientific and community circles, which the staff of the Texas Drought Project thoroughly reviewed. They’re briefly outlined here, together with how they can be addressed alongside a carbon fee. Also covered herein—the reasons why this could be the only opportunity we have at present to mitigate climate change.
One of the most fervent, long-term advocates for a carbon-fee proposal is Bill McKibben of 350.org. He warns that it has to conform to the framework below or it will fail to achieve its goals.
Many scientists and engineers alike also favor the proposal, but they too advise that a carbon fee can’t be the only solution. Carbon in the atmosphere has reached 419 ppm, and in order to mitigate climate change, carbon dioxide removal or sequestration has to be a major component. This would include agricultural and forestry practices that sequester carbon as well as direct-air capture.
Other experts have weighed in, calling for a “border tax/fee.” When products arrive at our border, they would have to pay a tax or fee at the same rate as emitting industry in our own country, or the nation exporting to ours would have to implement their own equivalent carbon-fee system. This would have a substantial effect on emissions if China were to sign on, and it would incentivize carbon-fee systems throughout the world.
Many social justice advocates have warned that there would be other consequences. Many Americans live in food deserts, and with Agriculture being included as a sector subject to the fee, would some no longer have access to enough food to feed their families? Clearly, changes must be made to Big Ag and family farms must be incentivized.
There are challenges to the implementation of such a fee, no doubt, but the challenges we face in getting the Green New Deal, or any other substantive legislation through our present Congress, are mounting daily. The Minority Leader of the Senate has stated his opposition to the Biden agenda as a whole, and vowed to defeat any part of it. The Heritage Foundation and Charles Koch have funneled massive donations to Democratic senators Manchin and Sinema, who are blocking the removal of the filibuster, a barrier that Democrats cannot overcome without their votes. And although Democrats could conceivably pass one more bill this year using reconciliation, with obstructionists like Manchin and Sinema opposing many of Biden’s proposals—and currently meeting with Republican senators to draft their own bills—there is little-to-no-hope that anything put forward to mitigate Climate Change has a chance in this Congress. And if political analysts are correct and 2022 sees majorities shift to the GOP in both houses, the situation will only get worse.
The Hansen proposal, with the kind of caveats laid out here, could be our only way forward. As we face the fact that we’re running out of time, it seems prudent to use every tool we have. And this could prove to be a very powerful tool. |
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Where We are Now: Urgent Action Now or Disastrous Consequences
“Fighting climate change is about survival and existence. Are we going to take action over the next few years to ensure our generation has a livable future, or are we going to continue to kick the can down the road and resign ourselves to live a life filled with chaos, violence, and uncertainty?” –Varshini Prakash, Founder of Sunrise Movement
There is HOPE on climate change if we finally follow the advice of our scientists and do what is necessary much like what we have now done on the virus The path forward to a safe future will stimulate our economy and create millions of needed jobs. However, our window to a livable future is closing. This is the time for decisive action. This is the time for all of us to get involved.
How Many Years Do We Have To Act? The importance of our present campaign comes from the urgency of climate change. Various organizations in the past several years have issued their research conclusions on how long we have to make substantial cuts globally or face the worst of climate change. Two years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said we had twelve years. However, when their very good scientists write a statement every 6 or 7 years it is edited line by line by politicians from the 195 members counties. What comes out of this process is much more a political statement than a scientific statement. From our reading of the research we cannot make a case for more than four years before nature takes over and we will just be witnesses to what happens.
Consequences Of Inadequate Action By the worst of climate change, scientists aren’t referring to our present fires and hurricanes. They’re referring to ecological collapse, having little or no food on our tables, and potentially, the end of civilization as we know it. Right now—not some distant tomorrow—we could be facing the loss of most, if not all, food production from California, which supplies ⅓ of our vegetables and ⅔ of the fruit consumed in the U.S, as wildfires, catastrophic drought and subsequent scarcity of water supplies work in tandem to threaten agriculture.
Biden’s Climate Plan President Biden has a climate plan that is better than any plan he has supported in the past. Parts of it would presumably be added into the pending infrastructure bill, but with each day that goes by, prospects dim. Even if it passed, it still wouldn’t be enough—additional legislation would have to be enacted. Looking at the situation now, it is clear that nothing significant will be passed by a Senate with Republican obstructionists and Koch dark-money recipients. At this point, it would appear that the kind of action we need to block the most severe manifestations of climate change isn’t going to happen—and that spells disaster.
A Climate Emergency Calls For Emergency Action We will continue to push for elements of the Green New Deal to be included in federal legislation and policy, but current events demand action now, and the chances of it passing in the Senate are nil. With that in mind, we will advocate for the immediate use of the independent Offices Appropriations Act by President Biden, asking him to direct the EPA to impose a fee on greenhouse gas emissions, as outlined by Dr. James Hansen in the article above. We will utilize our network of individuals, faith, labor, social justice, civil rights and political groups to contact their members of Congress and ask them to use their relationships with the President to press for this action. |
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What We’re Doing, and How You Can Help
The Texas Drought Project has been busy since August of 2018 building a broad and diverse coalition in 12 targeted Texas congressional districts. We’ll call upon those groups and individuals as we publicize the importance of this bold action, recruiting others to our cause. Then we’ll organize phone banks all over the state, unleashing a robust social media, postcard, and letter-writing campaign to get tens of thousands to contact their representatives through every possible channel, with one ask—please call upon President Biden to take action now.
Take Action Right Now!
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