Climate Change: Debating the Best Fix

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/opinion/letters/climate-change-debating-the-best-fix.html

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To the Editor:

Re “A Pragmatic Fix for the Climate Crisis,” by Steven Rattner (Op-Ed, March 21):

Schemes like Mr. Rattner’s are a knife in the heart to saving the earth from climate change. Under the guise of political and economic practicality, they set us up for failure.

The indisputable fact is that we must fully meet the goals determined by climate experts if the planet is to be kept from crossing the tipping point where global warming spirals out of control. The Green New Deal goals that Mr. Rattner calls “ludicrous” are the bare minimum to that end.

He says “a hefty carbon tax would go a long way toward winning the war” against climate change. But “a long way” means nothing. We must go all the way. Being close doesn’t count. Compromise isn’t an option here.

If it is politically inconvenient to do what needs to be done, then we must change the politics, not cave to them. If the fossil fuel industry and our energy use pattern are driven by economic forces resistant to the required action, then we must change the economics, not skimp on the action.

This is not about losing in an election cycle, or risking a recession. It’s about global catastrophe.

Art SalukPembroke Pines, Fla.

To the Editor:

As a former Republican appointee at the Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies, I was delighted to see Steven Rattner’s support for a carbon tax. The Times last year published an Op-Ed by Senator Trent Lott, former majority leader, supporting a carbon tax, and another Op-Ed promoted a carbon tax plan backed by former Secretaries of State James A. Baker III and George P. Shultz and a former Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., among others.

All of these Republicans are certifiable as “conservatives,” and the current elected Republicans in the White House and Congress would be well advised to end their “no new taxes” mantra and face the realities of our climate issues by adopting market forces as one workable remedy to carbon emissions.

As Mr. Rattner correctly noted, market forces can provide a significant answer to the problems without an increase in the federal bureaucracy. A carbon tax does that. It is also a matter of ethics. A livable planet with clean air is an ethical responsibility that we owe to posterity.

Howard A. CohenPhiladelphiaThe writer teaches business ethics at Temple’s Fox School of Business.

To the Editor:

The carbon tax plan put forward by the Climate Leadership Council that Steven Rattner calls “particularly thoughtful” has the support of companies like Exxon because it contains a little-known provision that would grant the oil and gas industry blanket immunity from all the climate change damages it knowingly caused.

Big oil has been sued by at least 14 government entities seeking to recover the enormous costs of adapting to climate change. A liability waiver, like the one buried in the council’s proposal, is the holy grail of industries seeking to avoid massive damage litigation. Tobacco and asbestos sought congressional immunity from liability and failed. The gun industry succeeded, and it is clear in that case that depriving citizens access to the courts served only to empower the National Rifle Association and block progress toward desperately needed regulations.

Climate change demands bold action, now. The Green New Deal is exactly the visionary and ambitious plan that meets the challenge. A carbon tax may in fact be part of a comprehensive plan to tackle climate change. But it is not enough on its own, and it should never serve as cover for an effort to deny communities access to the courts.

Richard WilesWashingtonThe writer is executive director of the Center for Climate Integrity.

To the Editor:

Steven Rattner states accurately that we need a climate solution, but that the Green New Deal is not the right one. As a college student, I could not agree more. The climate threat is a worldwide emergency that needs to be addressed to secure the livelihoods of my generation and subsequent ones. And although the Green New Deal has done much to bring national attention to climate change, many of my peers and I do not believe that it is feasible. At best, it would be highly partisan; at worst, it could stifle the economy.

A far superior solution is the carbon dividends plan that Mr. Rattner mentions. Not only does it have the capability to reduce our emissions, but it will also stimulate our economy and spur sustainable innovation. Furthermore, its bipartisan support allows the plan to be long-lasting.

A carbon dividends plan is the strongest tool we have at our disposal to combat the climate threat. We should all support this plan to secure the future of our country and our world.

Rohit GiridharanNew HavenThe writer, a Yale University student, is media outreach team leader for Students for Carbon Dividends.

To the Editor:

Steven Rattner proposes a tax on retail gasoline sales but does not mention the Yellow Vest reaction to the same policy proposal in France (since abandoned) that is destabilizing the French government and society in the most severe way since 1968. Do we not need to worry about that because of American exceptionalism? I don’t think so.

Sandy K. FeldmanNew York