A Pilgrimage for Hope: From the Beltway to the Backcountry
The Million Letter March
Another march is beginning as we depart for our 350 mile journey--the million letter march. This initiative, spearheaded by the Citizens Climate Lobby, is an effort to flood the halls of Congress with letters urging a simple and effective approach to climate change legislation--carbon fee and dividend. The concept is simple: place a fee on all carbon at its source (mine, well, port of entry). To offset the increased cost of energy, 100% of the fee will be returned to individuals as a dividend--as a result, most families will end up paying the same or less for energy that they do now. But, our economy will be moving away from its reliance on carbon. The steadily increasing carbon fee will put a price on carbon emissions and make renewables competitive with carbon-based energy within ten years. This approach is simple, fair, and straightforward. Learn more at www.millionlettermarch.org or http://www.citizensclimatelobby.org/
Walking the Walk and Talking the Talk--Our Million Letter March Letter to Bishop
Jamie Pleune
311 Quince St.
Salt Lake City, UT 84103
Representative Bishop
324 25th Street, Suite 1017
Ogden, UT 84401
Re: Please support carbon fee and dividend approach to climate change legislation
Dear Representative Bishop,
It is time to get to work addressing climate change. The science is irrefutable. Around the world, we are seeing harbingers of the devastation that a changing climate can impose on society, like flooding in Pakistan and fires in Russia to name the latest tragedies. But the threats of climate change aren’t limited to catastrophic events. They include insidious threats to our existence, like diminishing supplies of drinking water due to drought, irregular storm patterns, and earlier snow melts; declining food security caused by altered growing seasons and unexpected cold or warm spells; and threats to our infrastructure as we see an increased number of “hundred year storms” like Hurricane Katrina. Water, food, and social infrastructures are not luxuries. They are necessities for human existence.
As I write this letter, I am about to embark on a 350 mile walk through Utah. This walk, part pilgrimage, part political march, is a symbolic representation of the step-by-step approach that we must take to move away from a carbon economy in order to secure a hopeful world for our children. When I compare the threats posed by climate change with the inaction by political leaders, I feel hopeless. What type of representative government would ignore such basic needs of the electorate? This walk is also a search for hope. I hope that you will hear my voice joining with a chorus of others urging you to take immediate action to secure a peaceful and predictable future on this planet for ourselves and our children.
As a politician in a representative democracy, it is your responsibility to represent your constituents. No issue carries more urgency than addressing the existential crisis posed by climate change. For this reason, I am writing to add my voice to millions of other individuals who would like to see strong, effective legislation passed that includes a Carbon Fee and Dividend plan.
A Carbon Fee and Dividend plan could help us reduce our carbon emissions to 350 parts per million (the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) and make renewable energy sources competitive with carbon-based sources within ten years. This is a simple, effective, fair, and bi-partisan approach to legislating a solution to climate change. The Carbon Fee and Dividend approach works by placing a steadily increasing fee on carbon dioxide emissions at the source (mine, well, or port of entry) and returning 100 percent of the revenue gathered from the fee equitably to all American households as a dividend. The dividend would help families cover the cost of the transition away from fossil fuels. Most families would break even or get back more from the dividend than they would pay in increased energy costs. At the same time, the carbon fee would force large consumers and energy producers to internalize the true cost of burning carbon thereby facilitating a market-based shift to renewable energies. With the carbon fee, renewable energies would become less expensive than fossil fuels within ten years, unleashing a flood of investments in green technology and renewable energy—a market shift that would generate jobs and stimulate the economy.
The Carbon Fee and Dividend solution is simple, straightforward, fair, and predictable. No subsidies, market manipulations, or cap and trade economics required. This approach prioritizes human needs without favoring particular industries as we all adjust to the necessity of shifting our economy away from carbon. For this reason, I am writing to urge you to support a Carbon Fee and Dividend plan.
Sincerely,
Jamie Pleune
311 Quince St.
Salt Lake City, UT 84103
Representative Bishop
324 25th Street, Suite 1017
Ogden, UT 84401
Re: Please support carbon fee and dividend approach to climate change legislation
Dear Representative Bishop,
It is time to get to work addressing climate change. The science is irrefutable. Around the world, we are seeing harbingers of the devastation that a changing climate can impose on society, like flooding in Pakistan and fires in Russia to name the latest tragedies. But the threats of climate change aren’t limited to catastrophic events. They include insidious threats to our existence, like diminishing supplies of drinking water due to drought, irregular storm patterns, and earlier snow melts; declining food security caused by altered growing seasons and unexpected cold or warm spells; and threats to our infrastructure as we see an increased number of “hundred year storms” like Hurricane Katrina. Water, food, and social infrastructures are not luxuries. They are necessities for human existence.
As I write this letter, I am about to embark on a 350 mile walk through Utah. This walk, part pilgrimage, part political march, is a symbolic representation of the step-by-step approach that we must take to move away from a carbon economy in order to secure a hopeful world for our children. When I compare the threats posed by climate change with the inaction by political leaders, I feel hopeless. What type of representative government would ignore such basic needs of the electorate? This walk is also a search for hope. I hope that you will hear my voice joining with a chorus of others urging you to take immediate action to secure a peaceful and predictable future on this planet for ourselves and our children.
As a politician in a representative democracy, it is your responsibility to represent your constituents. No issue carries more urgency than addressing the existential crisis posed by climate change. For this reason, I am writing to add my voice to millions of other individuals who would like to see strong, effective legislation passed that includes a Carbon Fee and Dividend plan.
A Carbon Fee and Dividend plan could help us reduce our carbon emissions to 350 parts per million (the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) and make renewable energy sources competitive with carbon-based sources within ten years. This is a simple, effective, fair, and bi-partisan approach to legislating a solution to climate change. The Carbon Fee and Dividend approach works by placing a steadily increasing fee on carbon dioxide emissions at the source (mine, well, or port of entry) and returning 100 percent of the revenue gathered from the fee equitably to all American households as a dividend. The dividend would help families cover the cost of the transition away from fossil fuels. Most families would break even or get back more from the dividend than they would pay in increased energy costs. At the same time, the carbon fee would force large consumers and energy producers to internalize the true cost of burning carbon thereby facilitating a market-based shift to renewable energies. With the carbon fee, renewable energies would become less expensive than fossil fuels within ten years, unleashing a flood of investments in green technology and renewable energy—a market shift that would generate jobs and stimulate the economy.
The Carbon Fee and Dividend solution is simple, straightforward, fair, and predictable. No subsidies, market manipulations, or cap and trade economics required. This approach prioritizes human needs without favoring particular industries as we all adjust to the necessity of shifting our economy away from carbon. For this reason, I am writing to urge you to support a Carbon Fee and Dividend plan.
Sincerely,
Jamie Pleune
