Address climate change with carbon fee, dividend plan

Earth Day and Tax Day in the same week? Is that especially fitting since here in the U.S. climate change is an economic problem? Here we've got fossil fuels, subsidized by the government, not being required to pay for their pollutants -- a double economic whammy. Where are our government conservatives?

If we price carbon-based fuels to reflect their true cost, how should that work? Cap and trade usually falls apart at the capping and the trading, and a tax would just fatten government.

Former Secretary of State George Shultz has suggested a carbon fee and dividend plan. Since the government wouldn't keep the money, Shultz explains that this would be a fee, not a tax.

He suggests (1) a CO2-based fee that begins low and rises steadily over the years; (2) the return of all proceeds to the consumers equally; and (3) a border tariff to protect our balance of trade and influence other countries to price their carbon, too.

To celebrate Earth Day and Tax Day, let's all call our members of Congress and tell them that this is serious to us. We cannot afford to ignore climate change any longer.

Susan Darovec

Bradenton

This story was originally published April 24, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Address climate change with carbon fee, dividend plan ."