Defeating the fossil fuel industry POLITICALLY is the most difficult (and most important) battle in the war to slow down global warming. As long as Big Oil, Coal, and Gas controls our Congress and many of our state governments, our children are pretty much doomed. But the good news is that the fossil fuel industry is not invincible. And political attitudes can change rather quickly.
On the other hand, we are out of time. Global Warming is at the tipping point of no return which means Global Warming is about to accelerate into Runaway Global Warming. And Runaway Global Warming will be unstoppable, destroying everything we know and everyone we love. Therefore, America must put a ‘price on carbon’ as soon as possible and coordinate this price with other nations across the planet. And believe it or not, we have come close to doing this twice before. In 1993, the Democrat controlled House of Representatives passed the Clinton energy tax. But when the bill arrived in the United States Senate, it was gutted by Oklahoma Democrat David Boren who was widely seen as working for the fossil fuel industry. Then with President Obama’s election, the Democrat controlled House of Representatives passed the Obama Cap and Trade Bill in 2009. But again, the Cap and Trade bill was killed in the Senate by Democrats who feared both the fossil fuel industry and the building backlash from Republicans in the upcoming 2010 election. Keep in mind we have only had a Democrat President AND a Democrat Congress for 4 of the last 24 years: from 1992-1994 and from 2008-2010. Over the last 24 years the Republicans have done NOTHING to solve the climate crisis.
So the lesson here is that WE CAN pass a bill to ‘put a price on carbon’ through a Democrat controlled House of Representatives. However, passing a bill that ‘puts price on carbon’ through the United States Senate will be difficult. Even with a Democrat majority. The two prior efforts failed not only because of opposition from the fossil fuel industry, the Republican Party, and conservative media, but also because there was no strong constituency for either the energy tax or the cap and trade bill. And this is no surprise. It is very difficult to build a strong political constituency around either a tax increase or a new regulatory system like cap and trade.
So how can we build a STRONG political constituency to put a price on carbon? Two words: Carbon Rebate. Unlike a carbon tax, or a cap and trade system, the Carbon Rebate is more likely to develop a strong public constituency. This is because the Carbon Rebate puts CASH MONEY (not tax cuts) into the pockets of average voters.
“The Carbon Rebate is a check which will be given to each American family every year. In the first year, this check will be small but it will grow larger each year for about twenty years. The money behind this check will come from taxes paid by the big fossil fuel companies on their carbon emissions from coal, oil, and natural gas.”
In 2014, the Peiser for Congress Campaign in California was the first to coin the phrase “Carbon Rebate” and the first to make the carbon rebate a major focus of a congressional campaign. The Carbon Rebate is simple and easy to understand. And this simplicity is essential for a BROAD public information campaign to succeed at engaging a mass audience and building a strong constituency.
In 2015, the Democrats have introduced a version of the Carbon Rebate into both the House and the Senate. Though both bills require some fine tuning, they are solid first steps. However, the Democrats have no chance of passing either of these bills while Republicans are in the majority of Congress. If Democrats win the majority in Congress in 2016, history has shown us that the Carbon Rebate could pass the House of Representatives, but then die in the Senate. To prevent this from happening, voters will need to put a lot of heat on their Senators. So Climate Hawks should coordinate efforts to fund a BROAD public education campaign about the benefits of the Carbon Rebate targeting average American families. We need internet, radio, and television messaging. Not only will this help the Democrats win the Congress in 2016, but it will make it easier to pass the Carbon Rebate through the Senate and into law. And Climate Hawks must start this process NOW instead of relying on the Democratic Party. Because we are too close to Runaway Global Warming to rely on our elected leaders to do the right thing.