This Friday is the close of an opportunity to petition the EPA to regulate carbon and equivalent emissions. Please sign the letter to the EPA at the link below. Note that you will be placed on the We Campaign email list.
We campaign comment link
Coal is the major source of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. A carbon tax or cap and trade system would balance the externalized costs of burning coal. This would allow markets to choose clean(er) alternatives. EPA is the right agency to regulate this pollutant in the U.S. International treaties and coordinated incentives would allow a worldwide effort to proceed.
Right now, the U.S. is the only renegade among developed nations. Australia signed on to the Kyoto Protocol after a change of government. The Kyoto Protocol is running out of time, but the new administration can convene a new global conference to rectify the shortcomings of Kyoto. In the meantime, the EPA is setting policy that can represent a shift in the right direction, the direction chosen by the voters! Yea! Sign the petition and follow up with calls to your reps and senators.
Reposted from my comment to the mian WVA story. Sorry about how short this is, but I believe it is important to get comments in now.
My favorite clean alternative is wind power, which is cost-competitive with coal on a bulk MWH electric power basis. Regulation of carbon and equivalent emissions by EPA would lend itself to global economic incentives to reduce emissions. Wind, solar, negawatts, nuclear, geothermal, tides, and others could compete with dirty sources and gain quick and accelerating advantage. The better combinations of electric generation would win and evolve over the coming years.
EPA is the right agency to regulate and enforce either a carbon tax or a cap and trade system. Regulate and tax coal at the mine and oil and gas at the wellhead. If we start at EPA now, when the new administration takes over, they could soon convene a global conference to replace and improve on the expiring Kyoto Protocol.
If EPA kicks the can down the road, it delays solutions and remedies. People at EPA want to do the right thing; we need to insist that the delays stop.