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Carbon fee could be next step in saving Earth

I remember the hope I felt as I participated in the first Earth Day. As noted in your April 16 editorial, by the end of that year, Congress had passed and President Nixon had signed the Clean Air Act establishing the Environmental Protection Agency.

EPA regulations have protected many Americans from pollution-related health problems and premature death, and created jobs in the process. The value of these benefits is much greater than the cost of compliance.

Nevertheless, EPA regulations continue to come under assault. The Supreme Court has questioned whether the EPA should have taken compliance costs into account when it first decided to regulate mercury and other pollutants released from power plants. Efforts are also underway in Congress to stop or delay implementation of the President's Clean Power Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Maybe it's time to use the power of the market to curtail toxic and hazardous pollution. Former Secretary of State George Shultz recently proposed a market-based approach in a Washington Post op-ed. A fee on carbon-based fuels would speed the transition toward clean sources of energy, thereby reducing levels of harmful pollutants such as mercury.

A study commissioned by Citizens' Climate Lobby shows that putting a price on carbon at the point of extraction and returning the collected fees to American households in a monthly dividend check would save hundreds of thousands of lives over 20 years while cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half and adding 2.8 million jobs to the economy.

There is much work to be done to preserve a livable world for future generations. Establishing a carbon fee and dividend program is the first, best step.

Deni Mathews

Bartlett

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