WAYS AND MEANS

Image: house.gov, part of the Ways and Means Committee page.
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YOU, me, everyone you know -- is going to have to pay this tax--why not get it ALL back?

Then you can spend it to make your life better? And also seriously help save the planet!

The Ways and The Means
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James Hansen, in testimony, February 25, 2009, to Congress's Ways and Means Committee described the approaching CO2 future. James Hansen's testimony to the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S.House of Representatives provides the strongest leg to solving the problem. The process Hansen provided to the Ways and Means Committee is a "Dollars and Cents" proposal that, by itself, propels America away from fossil fuels, and directs America to clean efficient fuels, and energy sources.

James Hansen's Oral Statement begins:

"We have a planet in peril. The President recognizes this. The situation is clear."

"Evidence from Earth’s history and ongoing climate changes reveal that the dangerous level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is much less than once believed. The safe level is no higher than 350 parts per million, probably less, and we just passed 385 ppm."

James Hansen outlines the 100% distribution of a "carbon tax" to the public on a per capita basis as opposed to a "Tax" and Trade (euphemistically called "Cap and Trade") that makes Wall Street traders millions and extends fossil carbon emissions farther into the future. Do NOT let your Congressman and Senators provide the legislation for "Cap and Trade." . It is the wrong thing to do. Change it to Tax and Dividend

Hansen's suggested "Tax and 100% dividend" approach also provides America an incentive stimulus and an economic stimulus that will drive the change from fossil fuel to clean energy. Done on a global scale, this driver sounds the death knell of fossil carbon as a fuel for our civilization. Abandoning Kyoto and Al Gore's Cap and Trade approach, are the quickest possible path to eliminating the carbon emissions damaging our world.

The testimony is here: http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=view&id=7577

This is "open source" public testimony and I am going to snatch pieces from it for this posting. Of course I will cite and source the snatched pieces.

James Hansen's oral statement shows the way and the means.

"The root cause is our failure to make polluting fossil fuel energy more expensive than clean energy. We must put a price, a rising price, on carbon emissions.

There are two competing ways to achieve that price:

One is Tax & 100% Dividend – tax carbon emissions, but give all of the money back to the public on a per capita basis.

For example, let’s start with a tax large enough to affect purchasing decisions: a carbon tax that adds $1 to the price of a gallon of gas. That’s a carbon price of about $115 per ton of CO2. That tax rate yields $670B per year. We return 100% of that money to the public. Each adult legal resident gets one share, which is $3000 per year, $250 per month deposited in their bank account. Half shares for each child up to a maximum of two children per family. So a tax rate of $115 per ton yields a dividend of $9000 per year for a family with two children, $750 per month. The family with carbon footprint less than average makes money – their dividend exceeds their tax. This tax gives a strong incentive to replace inefficient infrastructure. It spurs the economy. It spurs innovation.

This path can take us to the era beyond fossil fuels, leave most remaining coal in the ground, and avoid the need to go to extreme environments to find every drop of oil. We must move beyond fossil fuels anyhow. Why not do it sooner, for the benefit of our children? Not to do so, knowing the consequences, is immoral.

The tax rate likely must increase in time, but when gas hits $4 per gallon again most of that $4 will stay in the United States, as dividends. Our vehicles will not need as many gallons. We will be well on the way to energy independence.

The alternative to carbon tax and 100% dividend is Tax & Trade, foisted on the public under the pseudonym ‘Cap & Trade’. A ‘cap’ increases the price of energy, as a tax does. It is wrong and disingenuous to try to hide the fact that Cap is a tax.

Other characteristics of the “cap” approach: (1) unpredictable price volatility, (2) it makes millionaires on Wall Street and other trading floors at public expense, (3) it is an invitation to blackmail by utilities that threaten “blackout coming” to gain increased emission permits, (4) it has overhead costs and complexities, inviting lobbyists and delaying implementation.

The biggest problem with Cap Tax is that it will not solve the problem. The public will soon learn that it is a tax. And because there is no dividend, the public will revolt before the Cap Tax is large enough to transform society. There is no way that the Cap Tax can get us back to 350 ppm CO2.

We need a tax with 100% dividend to transform our energy systems and rapidly move us beyond fossil fuels. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, we cannot let the special interests win this fight."

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The above excerpted from Hansen's oral testimony to the Ways and Means Committee, 25 February 2009.
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Congress is not always very representative of its citizens. Us. They first need to worry about the next election, so they are campaigning collecting money and change continuously. Congress pays attention to Big Carbon even though these corporations and people are the purveyors of the fossil carbon that is damaging the world. They take lots of money from them, and Hansen points out Congress and Senators are outnumbered 4 to 1 by recently hired lobbyists to do battle against this Carbon Tax and 100% Dividend planet-saving necessity.

If we support Tax and 100% Dividend, billions of dollars will be kept off Wall Street, billions returned to you, kept in the United States, and with it you can improve your life. The Carbon dumped into the air from fossil sources will diminish and finally halt, and the biofuel will not be carbon-taxed, electricity from nuclear, wind or solar will not be taxed. Every gram of carbon would be taxed at its commercial origin; the mine, the well head or the off-load port of entry. The tax collected would be divided among the citizens of the United States on the per capita basis. You would be the recipient and you would determine on what to spend it. Of course, if bio-ethanol is cheaper than gasoline (and it will be) you won't be charged a tax on its use. You would find it reasonable to perhaps buy a few solar panels or a clean energy car. Or you might go into business in the clean energy field.

Fossil natural gas would be taxed, but if you make and compress bio-methane into CNG from dairy or bacterial processes, that would be tax-free.

Image: NREL, Biorefinery. This produces Carbon Tax-Free Fuel.

Images: NREL

Image: National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Image: NREL

Image: NREL

If you (or your building) had your own solar panels you could sell power to the grid during the day, and plug your car in at night.

VISIT www.nrel.gov
www.awea.org.

Learn about alternatives to coal,oil.gas. If you don't change your footprint, you won't benefit. I'll take the money and spend it. Call your Senator and Congressman.
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1) read James Hansen's statement here, at Columbia.
http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2009/20090226_WaysAndMeans.pdf