Letters: Bill would help decrease greenhouse gas emissions; President needs to set example for children
Bill would be effective in decreasing greenhouse gas emissions
A recent CDT opinion piece reported that over a dozen major oil, manufacturing and energy companies have promised to lobby Congress for a carbon tax on fossil fuels. An important component of their position is that federal legislation would be preferable to a patchwork of local laws that would make compliance more difficult and expensive.
Researchers from Columbia University and the Rhodium Group recently published a study of the economic and climate effects of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (HR 763). The bill calls for a fee on fossil fuels, which starts at a level of $15 per ton of greenhouse gas emissions (equivalent to about 11 cents per gallon of gasoline), and rises annually by $10 to $15 per ton of greenhouse gases (about 7 to 11 cents per gallon of gas per year) depending on the achievement of pre-specified greenhouse gas emissions goals. The revenue collected is returned to citizens and legal residents. Agricultural and military uses are exempted from the fee.
The results indicated that the bill would produce decreases in greenhouse gas emissions of 36 to 38 percent by 2030. The dividend payments to citizens and residents will offset the increases in fossil fuel costs to consumers.
I would like to urge CDT readers to write to Senators Toomey and Casey and ask them to introduce HR 763 into the Senate, since the measure is predicted to be effective, uses a market-based approach, and minimizes regulations.
President needs to set example for children
Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see what I see?
In the movie “1776,” this dispatch is read to the Continental Congress, from George Washington, as Congress struggles within a partisan debate toward a vote on Independence.
As I sit in my living room, watching our elected officials in the House of Representatives debate the impeachment articles, the partisan arguing rages on. There is palpable defiance being chucked across the chamber, as twisted Republican rhetoric litters the airwaves, hoping the American public will remain convinced that President Trump is an upstanding citizen, honest,“perfect,” leader.
I speak to those of you who remain supportive of President Trump. I ask you ... would you allow a student in class to behave toward other students like President Trump does? Using language that chastises women, immigrants, and people of color, while condoning and perpetrating bullying to those who challenge him? Do you believe this is OK within a classroom where your child sits trying to learn?
The answer is no. As a career educator, we don’t allow this to happen in schools. We fight to protect others from feeling persecuted, bullied, belittled, or harassed. It’s not OK that a president, who is representing us, guiding us, leading our world, behaves this way everyday. We need to fight to elect a president that will bring dignity, compassion, intelligence and measured, unpoliticized action back to our highest office.
Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see what I see?
Finding ‘a means to greater peace’
We all know that after a forceful argument the mind clears and comes to itself. And we like the aggressive contest of football and say to ourselves with the State College High cheerleaders, “You’ve got to fight to win.”
All that said, the greater truth is on the other side with peace and non-violence, as both Gandhi and President Carter say.
Last month, the current president visited military graves at Normandy and said, “This is the altar of liberty.”
Four years earlier, President Obama visited the same graves and said, “These men sacrificed themselves for a greater peace. We must all honor them by working for peace in the world.”
President Obama is right. War is not the altar of liberty. War is only a means to greater peace. We must each find this peace spiritually and then forcefully answer evil with good. One day this will unite the whole world in joy.