I made another trip to Washington, D.C., trying to express my concern about the climate crisis with my senators, but yet again they wouldn’t meet this constituent.
I went to lobby for a price on pollution again. This was, though, the first time there’s a bill they can support. The Energy Innovation and Carbon Fee Act could be passed into law this year if enough voters are willing to speak up for their future.
It’s clear to anyone with a science education that we need to transition away from burning fossil fuels and all of the major oil companies, along with almost every leading economist, agree that a carbon fee is the most effective tool to accomplish it.
So why the continuing delay from our political leaders? I don’t know, because they didn’t deign to meet with me, but maybe they assume we still have time to profit from polluting our atmosphere.
The sky looks huge so it may seem that a coal plant here or there is no big deal, but Katharine Hayhoe provided a metaphor in her Citizens’ Climate Lobby conference lecture that helps visualize our atmosphere’s fragility.
The skin on an Earth-size apple would be 20 times thicker than our atmosphere. This should cause you to reconsider the consequences of adding a “little” pollution to it. So please join me in calling on Congress to put a price on pollution that would spur the innovation that can protect our children’s future.
Kevin Leecaster, Salt Lake City
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