Blog: Last Call at Club Fossil Fuel

This is an article that my friend and co-activist at the Citizens Climate Lobby, Mark Reynolds, wrote. I would like to share it with my fellow Eagle Rockers.

By Mark Reynolds

In Duluth, Minnesota, the bar tab at Club Fossil Fuel came to $100 million.

Never heard of Club Fossil Fuel? It’s the most popular franchise on the planet, everyone’s favorite watering hole for well over a century, where addictive libations such as coal, oil and gas are served at ridiculously cheap prices. Cheap, that is, until you factor in the hidden costs, such as asthma and other respiratory diseases from air pollution or the military costs to secure our supplies of oil from the Middle East.

And now global warming, caused by emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, is adding to the bill in the form of floods, droughts and other extreme-weather events that are becoming more frequent and intense in a warming world.

Those warmer temperatures, scientists tell us, are “juicing” the atmosphere—literally—because warmer air holds more water. What goes up, of course, eventually comes down, and in Duluth what came down was nearly 10 inches of rain in a day and a half that caused historic flooding. Damage to roads, utilities and parks will take an estimated $100 million to repair, a hefty sum for a city of 89,000.

Floods are nothing new, of course. Just ask Noah. What is new is that climate change has loaded the dice and increased not only the odds of floods occurring, but also the severity of those floods.

And floods aren’t the only item being added to the bill at Club Fossil Fuel.

In Colorado, the most destructive fire in state history has burned more than 80,000 acres, engulfed more than 200 homes and has already cost more than $20 million to bring under control. Like floods, wildfires are nothing new, but drought conditions brought on by climate change have made forests more incendiary. Another factor that’s turned trees into kindling is the staggering infestation of pine beetles that, thanks to warmer temperatures, are reproducing twice a year instead of once.

The folks in Duluth and Colorado are not the only ones picking up the tab for the destructive consequences of fossil fuel usage. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there were 14 weather and climate disasters in 2011 each totaling more than $1 billion in damage. Insured losses from those disasters totaled $44 billion.

Insurance companies, which have to adjust our premiums to cover those losses, are well aware of the economic impact climate change is exerting.

“From our industry’s perspective, the footprints of climate change are around us and the trend of increasing damage to property and threat to lives is clear,” said Franklin Nutter, president of the Reinsurance Association of America. “We need a national policy related to climate and weather.”

More precisely, we need a policy that will end our addiction to fossil fuels. Like an alcoholic who’s been on a bender longer than they can remember, we need a 12-step program that will restore sanity and order to our currently unsustainable lifestyles.

But how do we detox without administering a fatal shock to our economic system?

We can do that with a revenue-neutral price on fossil fuels known as carbon fee and dividend. A gradually increasing fee is placed on carbon-based fuels, starting at $10 or $15 per ton of the carbon dioxide those fuels will emit when burned. The fee would increase $10 per ton each year, sending a price signal to private investors that wind, solar and geothermal will be more profitable than coal and oil. This market-based approach—a market in which the hidden costs of fossil fuels are accounted for—will spur a rapid transition to clean energy and energy efficiency.

Where does the dividend come in?

Instead of taking the money from the carbon fee and spending it on more government programs, the revenue is returned to the American people in per capita shares, thereby offsetting the increased cost of energy associated with the fee. To protect American businesses from unfair competition, border adjustments will be made on goods from nations that do not have equivalent carbon pricing.

Last fall, the International Energy Agency warned that we have only five years before we lock in the carbon-intensive infrastructure that will make the process of global warming irreversible.

It’s time for last call at Club Fossil Fuel.

Mark Reynolds is Executive Director of Citizens Climate Lobby. He lives in San Diego.

CCL supports legislation, such as HR3242, which would establish a carbon fee and dividend program. This approach is also strongly recommended by the National Academy of Sciences, the foremost science academy in the United States, created by Abraham Lincoln in 1863.