Letter: Clean energy makes financial sense

“Pay attention to climate change” (May 9, Our Readers’ Views) points out that from the U.S. military to major American corporations, there is support for climate action and clean energy development.

We can create a clean-energy economy, nationally and globally, within the next decade with carbon pricing.

By making fossil fuel corporations pay for the pollution their products cause, rather than pushing those massive costs onto the public, we can swiftly phase out fossil fuels.

By rebating 100 percent of an escalating carbon pollution fee to every taxpayer in equal monthly “carbon dividend” checks, giving extra spending cash to those who switch to clean energy, we’ll increase GDP by over $70 billion annually.

“Carbon fee and dividend” has been used successfully in British Columbia for eight years, reducing energy bills and taxes while creating more jobs and a better economy than any other province in Canada.

In the United States, the proposal is projected to create more than 5 million permanent, well-paying jobs while reducing the more than 200,000 deaths caused annually by carbon pollution and the money spent annually in this country to treat carbon-caused illnesses.