Support carbon fee dividend act in Congress

Thank you for publishing the March 14 commentary, “Why we may want to side with Big Oil on carbon tax.”

I am 75 years old and have a grandson that will be 30 years old in 2050. If the U.S. keeps its pledge with the Paris Agreement, we need to do our part to keep global warming below 2 degress Celsius and hopefully 1.5 C. To do that analysts say all countries must have net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and start lowering those emissions now.

The moderate, bipartisan “Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act” (EICDA) will be reintroduced in Congress. It places a fee on carbon at the point of extraction or import and increases each year. The fee nudges citizens to replace carbon products with green products not affected by carbon fees. To make the bill popular and just, the fee goes into a trust fund that returns dividends to households based on the number of adults and children.

It is popular in voter polls, and would be reasonably easy to initiate and maintain over its 30-year life. EICDA is revenue neutral yet pays over $11 trillion to households during the 30-year period.

EICDA is just. The household quintile with the lowest incomes and consumption gets a median 1.9 times more dividends after taxes than the extra paid due to the carbon fee in the first year. Sixty percent of all households get the same or more back in dividends than the extra they paid for carbon products. It may not be popular with Big Oil. It keeps most regulations in place. We and our grandchildren request our Members of Congress, specifically Rep.Suzan DelBene and Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray to support EICDA when it is reintroduced.

Ed Belcher

Kenmore